‍The Final Sanctification

‍You probably believe in Purgatory, even if you think you don’t

  Gary Hoge  ·  September 30, 2026

‍I’m convinced that most Christians believe in the basic concept of Purgatory. They just don’t realize it because they misunderstand what Purgatory is. For example, an Evangelical relative once told me she thought Purgatory was a place where the unsaved could go after they die and from which Catholics could “pray them into heaven.”

‍That’s not even close. Purgatory isn’t a second chance at salvation after death.

‍To put it in Protestant terms, Purgatory is essentially the final stage of our sanctification. According to the evangelical apologetics website GotQuestions.org:

‍Sanctification is a three-stage process – past, present, and future. The first stage occurs at the beginning of our Christian lives. It is an initial moral change, a break from the power and love of sin. It is the point at which believers can count themselves “dead to sin but alive to God” (Romans 6:11). Once sanctification has begun, we are no longer under sin’s dominion (Romans 6:14). There is a reorientation of desires, and we develop a love of righteousness. Paul calls it “slavery to righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18).

‍The second stage of sanctification requires a lifetime to complete. As we grow in grace, we are gradually – but steadily – changing to be more like Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18). This occurs in a process of daily spiritual renewal (Colossians 3:10). The apostle Paul himself was being sanctified even as he ministered to others. Paul claimed that he had not reached perfection, but that he “pressed on” to attain everything Christ desired for him (Philippians 3:12).¹

‍Our sanctification must be completed before we can enter heaven. In Scripture we are told to “pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, NASB), and we are told that “nothing impure will ever enter” heaven (Revelation 21:27, NIV). The city of the living God is said to be the abode of “the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Hebrews 12:22-23, NIV).

‍As explained above, the process of our sanctification begins in life. But what happens if we are not perfectly sanctified by the time we die? According to GotQuestions.org,

‍The third and final stage of sanctification occurs in the future. When believers die, their spirits go to be with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). Since nothing unclean can enter heaven (Revelation 21:27), we must be made perfect at that point.²

‍Catholics call this final perfecting of those who die imperfectly sanctified Purgatory. It is the final purification of those who die in friendship with God but have not yet attained perfect holiness. In other words, it corresponds closely to what GotQuestions.org calls “the third and final stage” of our sanctification.

‍Now compare that explanation with the basic definition of Purgatory from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

‍1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

‍1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.³

‍Of course, Protestants who believe this happens instantaneously at death generally call it glorification rather than Purgatory. But both positions hold that a Christian can die imperfectly sanctified and must be made perfectly holy.

‍That doesn’t mean the two concepts are exactly the same. But they overlap enough that I think most Christians believe in the basic concept of Purgatory, even if they think they don’t.

‍GotQuestions.org provides a particularly striking example of this disconnect. In its article rejecting Purgatory, it argues that no cleansing after death is necessary:

‍Purgatory is taught to be a place of cleansing in preparation for heaven, overlooking the truth that, because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are already cleansed. We are also justified, forgiven, redeemed, reconciled, adopted, and sanctified.^⁴

‍But compare that with what the same website says in its article on progressive sanctification, quoted above. There, the fact that sanctification has begun in this life clearly does not mean that no further sanctification is necessary. Sanctification is “a three-stage process—past, present, and future.” The second stage “requires a lifetime to complete,” and Christians “will never be totally free from sin in this life.” Most significantly, GotQuestions.org describes what happens at death this way:

‍The third and final stage of sanctification occurs in the future. When believers die, their spirits go to be with Christ. Since nothing unclean can enter heaven (Revelation 21:27), we must be made perfect at that point.⁵

‍That is remarkably close to the basic concept GotQuestions.org rejects when it discusses Purgatory.

‍On the Purgatory page, the argument is: We do not need to be cleansed in preparation for heaven because we are already sanctified.

‍On the sanctification page, the argument is: Our sanctification is not yet complete; we will never be totally free from sin in this life; and because nothing unclean can enter heaven, we must be made perfect at death.

‍Those two claims are difficult to reconcile. If the fact that believers are already “sanctified” means that no further purification is necessary, why does GotQuestions.org say that sanctification remains incomplete throughout this life and that we “must be made perfect” when we die?

‍Conversely, if something really does remain to be accomplished—if a believer can die imperfectly sanctified and must then be “made perfect” because “nothing unclean can enter heaven”—then GotQuestions.org has conceded the central point at issue: a final purification of the believer is necessary.

‍Catholics call that final purification Purgatory.

‍That does not mean GotQuestions.org has accepted everything the Catholic Church teaches about Purgatory. It clearly has not. There remain important disagreements about temporal punishment, prayers for the dead, and the nature of this final purification. But the fundamental point of agreement is difficult to miss: a Christian can die before his sanctification is complete, yet he must be perfectly holy in heaven. Therefore, something must complete his sanctification.

‍The disagreement is over the nature of that final sanctification—and whether we call it Purgatory.

‍GotQuestions.org also objects to Purgatory because it involves an element of personal suffering, which, in their view, implies that Christ's suffering on our behalf was insufficient:

‍Jesus suffered for our sins so that we could be delivered from suffering. To say that we must also suffer for our sins is to say that Jesus’ suffering was insufficient. To say that we must atone for our sins by cleansing in Purgatory is to deny the sufficiency of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.⁶

‍But that misunderstands the relationship between purgatorial suffering and Christ's sacrifice. Catholics do not believe that Christ's sacrifice leaves part of the price of our redemption unpaid, so that we must finish paying it ourselves. Catholic teaching does speak of temporal punishment for sin, but that punishment flows from the nature of sin;⁷ it is not a completion of Christ's redemptive sacrifice.

‍Christ's sacrifice is entirely sufficient for our redemption. Purgatory does not complete Christ's work of redemption; it completes God's work of sanctification in us. Those are not competing works. Being redeemed from sin does not mean that God never disciplines or purifies his redeemed children through suffering. In fact, Scripture explicitly teaches the opposite:

‍My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:5-11, NIV, emphasis added).

‍This passage expresses the principle behind Purgatory: God's fatherly discipline can be painful, but its purpose is to enable us to “share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10, NIV) and attain “the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, NASB). 

‍So, if you believe what GotQuestions.org says about sanctification—that a Christian can die with his sanctification still incomplete, but must nevertheless be “made perfect” because nothing unclean can enter heaven—then you already believe in the basic concept of Purgatory, even if you think you don’t.

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^‍1 Got Questions Ministries, “What Is Progressive Sanctification?,” GotQuestions.org, accessed September 30, 2026, https://www.gotquestions.org/progressive-sanctification.html.

^‍2 Got Questions Ministries, “Progressive Sanctification.”

^‍3 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 1030–31.

^‍4 Got Questions Ministries, “What Does the Bible Say About Purgatory?,” GotQuestions.org, accessed September 30, 2026, https://www.gotquestions.org/purgatory.html.

^‍5 Got Questions Ministries, “Progressive Sanctification.”

^‍6 Got Questions Ministries, “Purgatory.”

^‍7 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1472: “To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the ‘eternal punishment’ of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the ‘temporal punishment’ of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.”