Galatians 2:20-21 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. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
2 Corinthians 5:17-19 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Positionally, I am already in heaven with Christ.
Ephesians 2:4-7 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The sin that I deal with is in the flesh, this body, and when this body dies, the last of that is gone and I will be absent from the body and present with the Lord.
God is merciful, but also just. No one deserves His mercy. Does that make Him cruel? This is the same God who took our sins to the Cross.
God's justice was satisfied by the cross. A believer doesn't know God as a god of justice. Only unbelievers experience Him that way and take His wrath.
Since Jesus died in my place, I can now know Him as a God of mercy.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
What did Jesus mean when He "said to his disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me"?
Repent. That's what repentance is.
Your characterization of Catholic teaching is alien to Catholics.
On the contrary, that is exactly how Catholics act and react towards God. It is plainly seen here on these threads by the multitudes of Catholics who think, hope, pray, that they might be saved and only will know after they've died if they made the grade, grateful for suffering in purgatory because it means they made it to heaven after all. How twisted.
—— The sin that I deal with is in the flesh, this body, and when this body dies, the last of that is gone and I will be absent from the body and present with the Lord. ——
Old heresies, like gnosticism, never die. They just changge labels.
“This utter pessimism, bemoaning the existence of the whole universe as a corruption and a calamity, with a feverish craving to be freed from the body of this death and a mad hope that, if we only knew, we could by some mystic words undo the cursed spell of this existence “
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06592a.htm
Sorry to hear that.