You can claim to have faith in God without obeying him, but professed faith without obedience to God is powerless:
Fool! When will you ever learn that “believing” is useless without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith. (James 2:20, Living Bible)
The positive effects of the gospel are preconditioned on obedience to the laws that provide them.1 To expect the blessings of heaven without obtaining and living the laws of heaven is foolish and vain:
6 You should not expect Christ to lift you into heaven while your heart remains in the manner of and fixed on the things of this world—this isn’t how faith or righteousness work.
17 Faith consists of witnessing the demonstration of Christ in another and reproducing it within yourself. (Romans 10, Author’s Reflection)
We are saved through faith in Jesus. You can’t have faith in Jesus without choosing to live as he would in your place.
Footnotes
- 1. For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world. (D&C 132:5) ↩