Jesus accomplished absolute forgiveness on the cross. He has conquered sin, satan and death. Purgatory does not exist, Jesus suffered the ultimate punishment that we deserve. nothing more has to be done. Bible is Truth is right, Jesus did it all on the cross and in His resurrection. Believe this and He will save us from eternal damnation. John 3:16
MaryIrene, that is not what Jesus said nor what the apostles taught. Please refer to my earlier post where Jesus clearly stated we will be judged not just on whether we perform acts of evil, but that we will be condemned for our failure to perform acts of charity, to fail to produce good fruit. He died on the cross to save us from our sins, yet that is an invitation to salvation we still must allow our faith in Him to change us to do His will.
A bit more from the Bible: Jesus specifically warns that simply claiming to be His disciple is insufficient:
Matthew 7,
You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit.
19
Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire.
I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits.
21** 'It is not anyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven.
When the day comes many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?”
Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, all evil doers!**
'Therefore, everyone who **listens to these words of mine and acts on them **will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock.
26 But everyone who** listens to these words of mine and does not act on them** will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand.
The apostles clearly passed on that Jesus preached an active faith, that if we truly have faith it will be manifested in our actions:
1 John,
2He is the sacrifice to expiate our sins, and not only ours, but also those of the whole world. In this way we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
Whoever says, ‘I know him’ without keeping his commandments, is a liar, and truth has no place in him.
But anyone who does keep his word, in such a one God’s love truly reaches its perfection. This is the proof that we are in God.
6** Whoever claims to remain in him must act as he acted.**
John 14
Jesus replied: **Anyone who loves me will keep my word, **and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make a home in him.
24** Anyone who does not love me does not keep my words.** And the word that you hear is not my own: it is the word of the Father who sent me.
Christ expects us to bear the fruit of good works.
John 15
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more.
3 You are clean already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you.
4 Remain in me, as I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing.
6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch – and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and are burnt.
And of course James 2 is very explicit on the correlation of faith with works.
Whoever acts without mercy will be judged without mercy but mercy can afford to laugh at judgement.
14 How does it help, my brothers, when someone who has never done a single good act claims to have faith? Will that faith bring salvation?
15 If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on,
16 and one of you says to them, ‘I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty,’ without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that?
17 In the same way faith, if good deeds do not go with it, is quite dead.
18 But someone may say: So you have faith and I have good deeds? Show me this faith of yours without deeds, then! It is by my deeds that I will show you my faith.
19 You believe in the one God – that is creditable enough, but even the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear.
20 Fool! Would you not like to know that faith without deeds is useless?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by his deed, because he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
22 So you can see that his faith was working together with his deeds; his faith became perfect by what he did.
23 In this way the scripture was fulfilled: Abraham put his faith in God, and this was considered as making him upright; and he received the name ‘friend of God’.
24** You see now that it is by deeds, and not only by believing, that someone is justified**.
25 There is another example of the same kind: Rahab the prostitute, was she not justified by her deeds because she welcomed the messengers and showed them a different way to leave?
26** As a body without a spirit is dead, so is faith without deeds.**
