A Consideration of Purgatory

“According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.  For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.  If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.  If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” -1 Corinthians 3:10-15 ESV

The doctrine of purgatory is an interesting and divisive point between Protestants and Catholics.  The idea being that after death, believers, prior to entering into the presence of God in Heaven, undergo a final act of cleansing, wherein they are purified from any remaining sin that clings to them after death.  Leaving, for the time being, the argument of whether or not the scriptures directly reference a state of purgatory, the Protestant argues that this “cleansing after death” diminishes the work of Christ on behalf of the believer, as though Christ had only provided us with a down-payment for our souls, after which we must then pay the rest ourselves in this intermediate state after death.  Catholics, on the other hand, make the argument that it in no way diminishes Christ’s work, which bought and paid for our salvation, but is part of the processes of sanctification in the life of a believer, the gradual work of the Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ.  We still commit sins, and God punishes His children, not as an unbeliever subject to Hell, but as a Father disciplines His children when they do wrong.  “For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” (Hebrews 12:7, ESV)

The argument from the Catholic perspective is quite rational when one takes a larger look at the course of a man’s life.  As Protestants, we seem to believe that although men are sinners now, and continue to sin after Christ has redeemed us (though we are subject to discipline from God), once we die we are immediately purged of all traces of sin, as though someone entered a dark room and suddenly switched on the light.  Perhaps Protestants believe that all sin is somehow tied to our mortal bodies and that, once they are removed, our saved spirits will shine without trace of wrongdoing.  I cannot accept this, as one look inside of myself reveals that sin is ever present within my heart; not the physical one, but my spiritual heart, which remains broken and damaged, even though it has been claimed by Christ and is undergoing His work of sanctification.  Indeed, the Bible tells us that the heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV).  I cannot allow myself to believe that all my sins can be blamed upon purely physical causes.  Christ did not die to save me from my physical body, but from a spirit that was altogether dead in sin.

With this in mind, that Catholic teaching on purgatory is simply an acknowledgement that sanctification, the process of becoming like Christ, of being made holy in Him, is gradual and may be observed to work over the course of a person’s life, but rarely, if ever, is it seen to be completed within that life.  So what of the process after death?  Does the man who has walked with God for many years, whose life shows remarkable transformation, enter into the presence of God directly?  What of the man who has only been saved for a short time, whose life is still filled with many unclean things?  Do they both alike enter into God’s presence altogether purified, without any further process of sanctification, merely through the accident of their death?

It may be so, and my point is not to argue for purgatory directly, only to point out that it is not an irrational concept by any means.  As we must be holy to enter into the presence of God, purgatory simply acknowledges that we may not be altogether sanctified at the time of our death, although we have been altogether purchased by the blood of Christ.  One noted Protestant apologist, C.S. Lewis, in his book “Letters to Malcom”, argued for the existence of purgatory by suggesting that without some manner of final sanctification after death, it would be as though we were to enter into Heaven welcomed, loved, fully accepted, clothed in a white spotless garment, and yet still with faces smudged in dirt and offensive breath.  Purgatory, he argued, would be merely the state of having a final wash after arriving from a long journey.  By no means would we be less accepted or loved in heaven, but would any of us, having arrived, desire to enter into the presence of God without first visiting the nearest sink to wipe the last bits of dirt from our faces?

Sometimes purgatory is suggested as a terrifying vision of punishment, somewhat akin to a Hell which only differs in that the believer may eventually leave, whereas the sinner may not.  This cannot be further from the truth.  Indeed, if there is any form of purgatory, it must necessarily be a place of hope and rejoicing, even though it is a place of purification (that is to say, discipline).  The best view of purgatory that I have read is in the second part of Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”.  Many are familiar with the first part of this poetic work, “Inferno”, but few seem to realize that his depiction of Hell is only the first of a three-part work which goes on to speak of Purgatory and Paradise (Heaven).  Purgatory, in Dante’s imagination, is a mountain leading upwards to Heaven.  Along the way as one climbs, the faithful are disciplined for all remaining traces of sin within them, so that they will be altogether free of its stain and influence when they reach the top.  No discipline is pleasant, but the believers rejoice, thank God and praise Him all the while because they know that without fail they will reach the top and enter into the presence of God, and so every moment that passes only serves to increase their joy.  Indeed, with the promise of God visibly before you and the knowledge that nothing can take it away, it would be impossible to have anything less than continual praise upon your lips and joy in your heart, no matter how difficult the circumstances of getting there may be.  I am convinced that if there is a purgatory, it is a silly thing to live in fear of it; when you stand before it, you will want nothing more than to pass through it.

This is not to say that although we should not fear purgatory, as one may fear Hell, we ought to live with a cavalier attitude toward sin.  Anyone who has been reading this blog will realize that I am a full believer in Reformed doctrine (i.e., Calvinism), after years spent defending Arminianism (which is, under observation, a close bedfellow to Catholic doctrine).  As such I firmly believe in the perseverance of the saints, which is sometimes referred to as “eternal security”.  This doctrine teaches that all true believers, having been redeemed, will necessarily remain redeemed and have Heaven as their guaranteed, unalterable future.  It does not, as has historically been accused, mean that one may sin as much as one wishes without fear of consequence.  Indeed, the believer is still subject to God’s discipline and His work of sanctification.  What it does mean, however, is that these processes are sure and will, without fail, ultimately meet their goal in the life of the believer.  However slow the process, the believer will certainly be conformed to the image of Christ.  Much like the souls in Dante’s Purgatory, the believer now may rejoice in all circumstances because the end is altogether sure in their sight, and every moment, however hard, draws them closer to the presence of God.  This future can never be altered.  However, although the end is sure, the severity of God’s discipline in sanctifying the believer depends upon the believer’s cooperation with God.  As His children, God will see us sanctified, but that may be with little discipline or with much, depending upon our obedience to Him.

So it must be with purgatory; one may live without fear of the outcome, and rejoice in the security of salvation, but one must also consider whether one wishes to enter into Heaven after a period of long and severe discipline, or more gently, as obedient children.  It is not necessary for us as believers to experience harsh discipline from God, but if we behave as obstinate children, we certainly will, for He will by no means allow us to pass into His presence unsanctified, any more than He would ever cast us away and disown us.

Upon these reflections, perhaps purgatory is not such a strange idea.  Indeed, as it is a time of being sanctified, perhaps we, as believers, are in it already, as God works within us and disciplines us in order to make us holy in Him.  And what if there is a form of purgatory after death?  Consider the passage in 1 Corinthians 3 which opened this article.  It speaks of a time of judgment for the believer, not for his eternal destiny, which is secure, but judgment of the works one has performed, some of which are described as being burned up by fire.  This may or may not be purgatory in the Catholic sense, but it is certainly a type of purgatory as, at the last, the believer is faced with the reality of their works and how empty many (in some cases all) of them have proven to be.  The believer is saved and is welcomed into the arms of Christ and into eternal bliss, yet is said to “suffer loss”.  It cannot be that loss or regret will enter into the eternal state with God, but certainly there is a very real sense in which, at that moment, they will experience loss prior to entering into their eternal bliss.  It may be that, in addition to simply not receiving a reward for works that will last, they will experience the loss of pride and a sense of true humility before God as they see that all of their actions on earth go up in flames when brought into the light and perspective of eternity, and certainly this will be a final act of sanctification, when the believer sees themselves in proper light before God, and is left with nothing more but to fall upon their knees in exaltation of Him.