18All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
And Romans 7.
We have two natures within us. We have the old nature which is corrupted and sinful and needs to die and can never be fixed up or cleansed or purified.
We have the new nature, that of the Spirit, having been born again, which is not corrupted or sinful and gives us life.
They are at war within us, but they are separate and do not overlap. There is no need to purge the new part because there is nothing to purge from it. There is no evil in it as it is of the Spirit and CANNOT have evil in it.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
When we finally die physically, the old nature is dead once for all. It is no longer part of us. The new part that remains, the part that has been born again and is the new creature, does not have any stain of sin, just as the old nature does not have any *stain* (For lack of a better word) of righteousness.
AND, the new 'man' can not sin...They can't seem to pick that up...
The sin is done by the 'old man' in the flesh...
That which goes up ahead of the body has no sin attached to it...That's why there will be no White Throne Judgment for Christians...We have be judged already...
Rom 5:13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
We are not under the law...We are under Grace...There no sin imputed to us...
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
We are dead to sin...The 'new man' within us is dead to sin...
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Self explanitory...
Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Praise God...No purgatory...
The part of us that sins stays here in the ground while we spend our lives with Jesus (until our bodies are glorified and raised)...
1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Heb 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
That is why we should rely upon The Bible and The Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and not the Doctorines of men or mans traditions. If Stephen and John had not been purified soley by Christ they could not have witnessed what they saw. If GOD could not look even upon or be in the presence of His Son at the cross because of sin {Ours} how much more so us? Yet Stephen saw Christ at the right hand of the Father in His Glory meaning he would have too have seen both. That is proof of the cleansing and healing power of Jesus Christ is absolute.