C
Carlan
Guest
You know you are separated from God when you commit mortal sin(deadly).I’m not an expert of Catholic doctrine, so please correct me. It is my understanding that through baptism, and person receives initial justification and is right with God. Through the reality of this life, we sin as Christians. Therefore, the initial justification can be lost depending of the kind of sin committed (venial or mortal). Through the various sacraments dispense by the church, a Christian can be strengthened, forgiven, etc regaining the initial justification that could be lost.*** How do you know if you lost your initial justification?*** I believe final justification is conditional of becoming righteous or sins have been purged from the Christian.*** Therefore, purgatory is needed to purge sins that have not been removed in this life.*** The biggest difference IMO between our understanding of justification is being justified by the righeousness of Christ alone (alien righteousness) verse being justified by being made completly righteous (personal righteousness gained through the merits of Christ applied - transformation). My goal is to be able to understand and post the Catholic way of salvation with complete accuracy. Could you please try to answer my question now?
TEMPORAL PUNISHMENT OF SIN
Sin has a double consequence, every sin grave or even venial sin entails an unhealthy attachment to us which must be purified.
Yes, we have been for given when we repent of our sin and are restored to communion with God, but temporal punishment remains, and we must strive to accept temporal punishment as a grace to do good and 'put off the oldman completely and put on the “new man”. This is how we achieve holiness.
This unhealthy attachment to sin is either purified in this life on earth or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called temporal punishment of sin.
These two punishments must not be conceived of as any kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin.
Again, temporal punishment due to sin whose guilt has already been paid for by Jesus, Catholics believe is a grace from God to help us to become better Christians by purification so as to achieve the holiness needed to enter the joy of heaven.
I hope this helps you futher to understand the process of Justification and Salvation,
God bless and give you understanding and peace as you discover more of the complete Truth.