This.
“How many of us will be perfectly sanctified at the time of our deaths?”
Scripture answers that and it answers it clearly: ALL those in Christ will be perfectly sanctified.
It’s not about the perfection or sanctification of the sinner, it’s all about the perfection of the sinner’s substitute, Christ Jesus. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
We will stand in at the bar of justice as pure and innocent as Christ Himself. Why? Because His righteousness is imputed to our account and He bore our ALL of our sin on the tree.
Speaking of the Savior, Titus 2:14 says, “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Did you catch that? He redeemed us from ALL iniquity.
“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption”
—1 Corinthians 1:30
Christ Jesus is our righteousness! Christ Jesus is our SANCTIFICATION! It’s all about HIM!
Hebrews 10:10 says, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” We are sanctified through Him!
In Galatians 3:3 Paul asks, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”
Hebrews 10:14 says, “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” How are we going to be more sanctified than perfect forever?
Colossians 2:9-10 tells us, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:” True born again believers are COMPLETE in HIM.
Purgatory is another unbiblical form of bondage foisted on poor sinners by the papal antichrist system and I don’t how anyone could consider it good news. It’s a lie! Sinners, look to Christ alone and be free of the bondage of Rome! (or any other manmade bondage!) You can never purify yourself enough to be fitted for heaven, but HE can.
This is what Christ Himself said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Now that is good news!
Wrong premise from the get go.
The blood of Christ cleanses us from ALL sin.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
That's what forgiveness is all about.
Romans 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Purgatory CANNOT cleanse us from sin because ONLY the blood of Jesus is capable of that.
Hebrews 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
There's not one verse of Scripture that says that forgiveness or cleansing come any other way.
“No Christian sect I know of even attempts to deny this text speaks of the judgment of God where the works of the faithful will be tested after death.”
What scripture says:
“After all, who is Paul? Who is Apollos? No more than servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord gave each man his opportunity. I may have done the planting and Apollos the watering, but it was God who made the seed grow! The planter and the waterer are nothing compared with him who gives life to the seed. Planter and waterer are alike insignificant, though each shall be rewarded according to his particular work.
In this work, we work with God, and that means that you are a field under God’s cultivation, or, if you like, a house being built to his plan. I, like an architect who knows his job, by the grace God has given me, lay the foundation; someone else builds upon it. I only say this, let the builder be careful how he builds! The foundation is laid already, and no one can lay another, for it is Jesus Christ himself.
But any man who builds on the foundation using as his material gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or stubble, must know that each man’s work will one day be shown for what it is. The day will show it plainly enough, for the day will arise in a blaze of fire, and that fire will prove the nature of each man’s work. If the work that the man has built upon the foundation will stand this test, he will be rewarded. But if a man’s work be destroyed under the test, he loses it all. He personally will be safe, though rather like a man rescued from a fire.
Don’t you realize that you yourselves are the temple of God, and God’s Spirit lives in you? God will destroy anyone who defiles his temple, for his temple is holy—and that is exactly what you are!”
This clearly teaches that each person’s ministry - how they perform their role in building the church - will be revealed (”shown for what it is”) as worthwhile or a waste of time. It has nothing to do with judgment for sin, or of salvation. Paul is defending his MINISTRY, not his salvation!
“You, who were spiritually dead because of your sins and your uncircumcision (i.e. the fact that you were outside the Law), God has now made to share in the very life of Christ! He has forgiven you all your sins: Christ has utterly wiped out the damning evidence of broken laws and commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it over his own head on the cross. And then having drawn the sting of all the powers ranged against us, he exposed them, shattered, empty and defeated, in his final glorious triumphant act!”
To repeat for emphasis, and I know you won’t mind boatbums:
“He has forgiven you all your sins: Christ has utterly wiped out the damning evidence of broken laws and commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it over his own head on the cross.”
How about a round of “Victory in Jesus!”
O victory in Jesus
My Savior, forever
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory
Beneath the cleansing flood
I heard about His healing
Of His cleansing pow’r revealing
How He made the lame to walk again
And caused the blind to see
And then I cried, “Dear Jesus
Come and heal my broken spirit,”
And somehow Jesus came and brought
To me the victory
O victory in Jesus
My Savior, forever
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory
Beneath the cleansing flood