Do we have to be sinless to get to heaven?

[Kaily]

When talking to a protestant (ie Calvinist) would you say one has to be sinless to get to heaven? This is sanctification, but I don’t think Catholics believe in entire sanctification like certain groups do they? And would you say the Holy Spirit doesn’t completely fill someone who is still filled with too many sins/bad habits?

And what about in Scripture when it says it not I who live but Christ who lives in me, meaning one who gives their life to Christ has become a new creature.

 

[NHInsider]

We have to be pure to enter heaven - either sinless or purified.

 

[fulbert4605]

Purified is the key word. Only Jesus and Virgin Mary were sinless.

Everyone else sins. If we approach Jesus with true repentence, He will forgive our sins but there is still the temporal punishment due from those sins. i like Father Vincent Serpa’s example with the orange juice. You spill orange juice on the floor. You ask your parents for forgiveness. They forgive you. There is still a mess of orange juice to clean up on the floor and you have to be the one to do it.

Temporal punishment due from sins can be expiated in this life through good works, indulgences, etc. and/or time in Purgatory.

Only souls as the purest of white are permitted to see the Face Of God.

 

[Crumpy]

The matter is seldom discussed but Jews believe in after-death purification (as we say in “purgatory”) before they are admitted to the Divine presence. The rabbis think that it may take about 11 months, on the average.

Sinless? That’s a deeply theological question, and I can’t answer in that fashion. In a practical way, we (Catholics and Jews) both admit, we have to have a goal of doing good and avoiding evil.

Tonight, I was reading that last chapter of Revelation where it says we will be judged for what we have done.

Jesus didn’t come to condemn us. He said, repent and believe. There is our hope.​

One of the absolutely newest ideas I got from Scott Hahn was reading his book “Reasons for Belief.” He points out that (in the second creation account, Gen 2) that man is created and given dominion over all creation. This is a conferral of royalty, of kingship to man. And, one way of describing original sin was not just disobedience of God, but abdicating that dominion by subjecting themselves to the temptation of the serpent.

Jesus’ role was to overcome that loss of dominion and restore it. His blood washes away our sins, even our future sins. But, this is the blood of the covenant, a covenant which requires us to repent. Jesus is the judge who will examine our lives. Being as sinless as possible is probably one part of that judgment. We cannot save ourselves, we need a Savior.

That same last chapter of Revelation talks about our being worthy by eating the fruit of the tree of life, and living at the banquet of the Lamb, consuming the body and blood of Christ. We must be so perfected.

 

[thistle]

When talking to a protestant (ie Calvinist) would you say one has to be sinless to get to heaven? This is sanctification, but I don’t think Catholics believe in entire sanctification like certain groups do they? And would you say the Holy Spirit doesn’t completely fill someone who is still filled with too many sins/bad habits?

And what about in Scripture when it says it not I who live but Christ who lives in me, meaning one who gives their life to Christ has become a new creature.

Whether you are saved or condemned to Hell depends on the state of your soul when you die and not whether you have comitted many sins during your life and no matter how many good works you have done during your life.
To be saved (straight to Heaven or more likely Purgatory first) you must die in a state of grace, i.e. you must not have any unrepented mortal sins on your soul at death.