Paul couldn’t have made any plainer. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:"
My religion is carrying me. I accept and place my trust in Jesus secure in the knowledge that He is the propitiation that justifies me before a righteous God. 1 John 4:10, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
Although Jesus cried “It is finished” from the cross many have bought into the necessarily to add works to assure their salvation. Matthew 15:9, "But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." In my opinion, members of The Roman Catholic provide an example of carrying their religion right into the fiction of purgatory as they follow “doctrines and the commandments of men.”
On a personal note, after mom’s conversion to Catholicism at the age of 90 I often reminded her of her early Christian upbringing. Although mom never owned up to it, I believe that her conversion to Catholicism was because her friends were Catholics and would make sure that she got to church.
In the RCC there are Mass cards that are bought and placed on the altar as well as the purchasing of indulgences, both cash cows. When my mother was dying I was appalled when well-meaning friends of hers gave her a scapular to hold in her hand as she passed over. It is my understanding that on the first Saturday after death a Roman Catholic saint will liberation one from purgatory if that person is buried with a scapular. Mom's ashes are in an urn along with her rosary and the aforementioned scapular. Somehow I think that God will understand.
But I digress. I rest in the knowing that through Jesus I am justified. I'm now in that phase of my life where I am working out my sanctification. Even while working out my sanctification, I’m still being carried. No self-mortification for sins already paid for by Jesus. Rather I try to be a worthy ambassador for God.
It’s as simple as John 3:16. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
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