"And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" ~Philippians 1:6
A loyal Integrated Prayer reader recently wrote me about a conversation she had where the topic of purgatory came up.1 She said that she herself doesn’t believe in purgatory, but she asked for my thoughts on it. In writing and thinking through my response, I came to the point where I thought to myself “this feels like a reflection I’d put on my Substack!” Here is a slightly expanded version of what I wrote:
I’ve never struggled to believe in purgatory as a Christian. The idea has always made sense to me, and I think the scriptures clearly point to it. Very briefly, the Bible speaks of praying for the dead and of forgiveness of sins in this life and in the next.2 These ideas don’t make sense without a stage in between heaven and hell. As many others have pointed out, if someone is in heaven, they don’t need prayers or forgiveness. If someone is in hell, prayers and forgiveness can’t help them. Since nothing unclean will enter into heaven3 it follows that prior to entering heaven, we will first undergo purification.
While I have never struggled to believe in purgatory, I have struggled to explain it to people. Not everyone finds the above case convincing. Moreover, arguments from Church authority or scriptural exegesis don’t really address why this doctrine bothers people so much. Sadly, it has been loaded with heaps of emotional and spiritual baggage - often deservedly so given the harsh and sometimes downright toxic explanations and practices that have surrounded it historically.
If you struggle with the idea of purgatory, I think you probably have good reasons. If purgatory as you understand it means that God doesn’t fully forgive our sins, or that Jesus’ death on the cross didn’t take the full punishment for them, or that we need to earn our way into heaven, then you are right to see it as absolutely opposed to the Gospel.
But I would offer that these are misunderstandings of purgatory. They certainly aren’t what the Catholic Church teaches. I think we can most clearly understand what the Church teaches about purgatory if we compare it to how our own relationships work:
When a couple gets married, their goal is not to avoid getting divorced, but to love and honor each other. Obviously you can't have a good marriage if you are divorced. But just because a couple hasn't gotten divorced doesn't mean they have a good marriage.
If a divorced couple gets back together, their relationship is restored, but they will probably still have a lot of junk to work through before they can truly experience a good marriage. That junk doesn’t mean they aren’t married. It just means that their relationship needs further healing. This healing will take more or less time, depending on how committed they are to the process of healing.
Purgatory works the same way. The goal of the Christian life is not to avoid going to hell. It is to have a good relationship with God. Obviously you can't have a good relationship with God if you go to hell. But just because someone isn't going to hell doesn't mean they have a good relationship with God.
When we repent, our relationship with God is restored, but we still have junk to work through before we can truly have a good relationship with him. This junk doesn’t mean we aren’t saved. It just means we haven’t yet reached our goal. This process of purification will take more or less time depending on how committed we are to healing the relationship.
Think of the prodigal son. What caused him to leave in the first place? Why did he have so much contempt for his father? Why did he behave so self-destructively when he was away? Yes, his father fully and unreservedly forgave and restored him. But that probably didn’t magically erase his character flaws and emotional issues. Realistically, he probably had years of inner work ahead of him in order to believe and live out of his identity as his father’s beloved son.
Imagine I punch someone and I break my hand. If I repent of that sin, God would forgive me, but my hand would still be broken. I'd still have to go to jail and get sued. I would still have to work through all the junk in my heart that led me to be so angry in the first place. It would also probably take some time to forgive myself and heal from the guilt and shame I’d be carrying. None of this means that God hasn't forgiven me. It just means that my actions have consequences.
The whole Christian life is like this. We have been forgiven, but we are still working through and living with the consequences of our sins and those of the whole world. This is what Jesus meant when he said to take up our cross. Jesus' forgiveness means that I don't need to run away from the consequences of sin. I can own up to them and engage the process of healing even though it might be uncomfortable. I can do this because I know that the resurrection is waiting for me on the other side of the cross.
How many of us can say that we have trusted in God's redemption enough to fully and faithfully take up our cross in this way? All too often we hide from the cross and trust in ourselves, or flee to otherwise innocent pleasures and distractions. And so it happens that many manage to avoid going to hell, but they haven't yet managed to form a relationship with God that is fully trusting and surrendered.
Scripture teaches that “All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death” (1 John 5:17). The latter sins lead to purgatory. But take courage! Purgatory leads to heaven. Yes, purgatory is a harsh and tragic reality, but that is only because sin is a harsh and tragic reality. If avoiding purgatory and achieving perfection seems daunting and unattainable, that’s because it is. Without Jesus we can do nothing, but with God, all things are possible.4 The sooner we stop relying on our own efforts and place our full trust in God’s grace, the less painful and scary this process will be. We have nothing to fear if we place our full trust in Jesus’ tender and unfathomable mercy.
Purgatory is the final state of purification that believers go through before entering heaven if they have not been fully sanctified during their life. See the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s section on purgatory
See 2 Maccabees 12:46 and Matthew 12:32
Revelation 21:27
See John 15:5 and Matthew 19:26