“Because Heaven is a place of spiritual perfection, we will go to Purgatory when we die to do penance for any sins we still are guilty of. Once we’ve paid to the last penny, we’ll be ready to be with the saints and God in Heaven”
So YOU have to pay for your sins! Because when Jesus said “thy sins are forgiven” He meant only some of them? Only the ones you were thinking of? Only the ones prior to Him saying that? I don’t remember Him putting a qualifier on that statement.
I KNOW that Jesus paid for mine and when I die I will appear before the Father as if Jesus were standing there because I will be going “in Jesus name” as he told me to do. My sins have been forgiven!! I trust Jesus totally!!! He was the perfect sacrifice for MY sins.
I’m sorry you think that Jesus sacrifice wasn’t good enough for ALL our sins. You can’t have it both ways. He either paid the price totally or He didn’t and you have to “take up the slack” by somehow paying for the ones He missed.
When Peter denied Christ three times, he was forgiven by Christ’s death on the cross. But he still had to pay a price. After the Resurrection, he was publicly humiliated by being asked by Christ three times in front of all the Apostles if he really loved Him. Peter had to be cleansed not just of the sin, but of the guilt through penitent action and active affirmation.
It is the same with us. Christ redeemed us but we continue to sin. We are redeemed because we believe in Christ and God’s mercy, but we must still go through the steps, as Peter had to, to remove the guilt of that sin through penitent actions and active affirmation of our love for God. We can do it while we are alive, through Confession and penance. After we die, if we still have unreconciled guilt on our souls, we are sent to a place we can complete the process. This is Purgatory: the place we go to wipe away the vestiges of guilt and responsibility for our sin as we affirm our love for God and our belief that He will have mercy on us. Once we have “paid the last penny” and are cleansed of the guilt, we can be united to the wonderful purity of Heaven.
The Epistles are full of comments to people who, while they believe in Christ, are still being held to account for their poor behaviours. In fact, most of the epistles were written to correct believers’ behaviours and misconceptions. Why bother if they were “saved?” Because they weren’t exonerated.
There is a personal component to Salvation that requires action/conversion/obedience of us. Today’s Gospel about the Narrow Gate was a perfect example. In Luke 13: 22-30 we hear believers say they want in to Heaven because they are familiar with Jesus and have supped with Him and listened to Him teach in their streets. He replies that He “knows them not” and tells them to “depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.”
They knew Him and called Him “Lord,” but He did not know them. Why? Because their actions were sinful. They were “workers of iniquity” and the Master locked them out.