The Immaculate Conception Quite simply this doctrine states that the Virgin Mary was preserved free of Original Sin from the moment of her conception, and so was made sinless. WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS DOCTRINE? It has to do with the Holiness of God. God cannot tolerate Sin. Mary as the God-bearer in Jesus had to be sinless in order to be in such close proximity to God Himself. The whole Bible teaches that Gods presence demands and imparts holiness. (Ex 3:5; Deut 23:14; 1 Cor 3:17; 1 Jn 3:5-6; Rev 21:27). The Jewish high priest entered the Holy of Holies only once a year, under threat of death if Gods instructions were violated (Lev 16:2-4,13). The Ark itself was so holy that only a few were allowed to touch it (Num 4:15; 2 Sam 6:2-7). Thus, Mary, due to her physical and spiritual relationship with God, necessarily had to be granted the grace of sinlessness. In other words, since Jesus took flesh in and from Marys body, and also obtained His Human Nature from Her, she had to be perfectly sinless. The only question that then arises is when and how Mary was made sinless. Protestants are quite willing to admit that we are cleansed of our sins at baptism. Yet Mary could not have been baptised at the time of the Annunciation, or even Jesuss birth. For this reason her sinlessness had to come in a special and unique manner. To be pure and free from all sin as God required, she had not only to be free of sin at one point in time, (as one is immediately after baptism,) but to remain sinless throughout her life. JUST A MINUTE. DIDNT MARY HERSELF ADMIT THAT SHE NEEDED A SAVIOUR? HOW COULD SHE BE SINLESS? Mary did indeed agree she needed a Saviour: Luke 1.46: And Mary said My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, But this presents no difficulty. We have seen that Mary needed to be perfectly sinless in order to bear Jesus. Did she attain that sinlessness through her own human efforts? No. She was redeemed by her son - as was all the rest of humanity. She needed Gods Grace. And in order to be, and remain, sinless she needed that grace before her own birth. We can see that in Luke 1.46 Mary speaks of God as her Saviour, but she speaks in the present tense. She does not say God, who will be my Saviour. She has already been redeemed. If we look at one of the Old Testament passages that Mary bases her words upon, we see this more clearly. Isaiah 51.10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. As virtually every educated 1st Century Jew would have recognised, in echoing this passage, Mary clearly considered that God had already clothed her with the garments of salvation, and covered her with the robe of righteousness. Her sin had already been wiped away. This is supported by the angels greeting to Mary: Luke 1.28: The angel went to her and said, Hail, you who are full of grace (Literally: you who have been and remain filled with Grace). The Lord is with you. Grace in the New Testament is seen as the antidote to sin. (Rom 3:24, 5:15-17, 6:14 11:6) So being filled with Grace strongly implies sinlessness. And since Mary required the grace of redemption before her own birth, it is quite fitting that this happened at her conception. Is this a problem for God? No. Jesus is the perfect Redeemer. Therefore he must have redeemed one person perfectly. That person is Mary, having been redeemed by Jesus from Original Sin from the moment of her own conception. BUT IVE BEEN TOLD THAT FULL OF GRACE IS A MISTRANSLATION. MY BIBLE SAYS HIGHLY-FAVOURED. Im afraid that those who translate the angels greeting as highly-favoured have been guilty, for whatever motive, of making a false and rather misleading distinction. The Greek word used by the angel is Kecharitomene. The root of this word is Charis, meaning Grace. The prefix Ke means that the grace was already perfectly present before the angel appeared. The suffix mene means that Mary was the recipient of this grace. Now Charis can also be translated simply as favour. So Highly-favoured could be a conceivable translation - but this would only be acceptable if the word favour were used as a translation for Charis everywhere else in the New Testament. But THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN. Even those bibles which translate Charis as Favour when referring to Mary, translate it as Grace everywhere else. This is highly misleading because in the New Testament the word Grace has a particular meaning distinct from Favour. In the New Testament Grace is a gift of God that saves from sin and its effects. So translating the word any differently is wrong. The correct translation is rightfully Full of Grace. BACK TO TYPE To back this up, lets look again at Adam and Eve as types of Jesus and Mary. Paul wrote of ..Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. (Rom 5.14.) The Church fathers spoke of: Death through Eve, Life through Mary. In A.D.155, Justin Martyr wrote, .. Eve, a virgin and undefiled, conceived the word of the serpent, and bore disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy when the angel Gabriel announced to her the glad tidings that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her (Dialogue with Trypho) St Irenaeus wrote: the knot of Eves disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. What the virgin Eve had bound in unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith. (Against Heresies 180-199 A. D.) We know that the First Adam and the First Eve both started their lives in an immaculate state, there being no Original Sin before the Fall. We also know that the Second Adam started his life in an immaculate state -- Christ had no Original Sin or its stain -- and so we should expect the Second Eve to also start her life in an immaculate state. If the First Adam and the First Eve were immaculate, and if the Second Adam was also immaculate, then the Second Eve will be immaculate as well. ONE OTHER OBJECTION It is difficult to see why some Protestants object to the Immaculate Conception. Martin Luther himself accepted it (see below.) But the following verse is sometimes raised in an attempt to disprove the doctrine. Rom 3:23: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God... The problem with this is that the word ALL here is the Greek word, PAS, which can have different meanings to the absolute that we immediately think of - as shown in other verses of Holy Scripture. John 12:19, All the world has gone after him! Did everyone in the entire world really go after Christ? Mt 3:5-6, Then went out to Him Jerusalem, and ALL Judea, and ALL the region about the Jordan; and they were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. Were all of the people of Judea, and the region about the Jordan baptized? Luke 2:1 And an order went out from caesar Augustus that ALL the world should be counted. Was everyone in the whole world counted? Rom 11:26, ALL Israel shall be saved. Will everyone in Israel truly be saved? Rom 15:14, ...you yourselves are full of love, filled with ALL knowledge... The only person filled with ALL knowledge is God Himself. The Greek word PAS in many verses in Scripture simply means a great number, most of, or a lot. So its appearance in the quoted passage can in no way be used as an objection to the sinlessness of the Virgin Mary. A final quotation on this subject: It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Marys soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with Gods gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin. Martin Luther: Sermon, 1527
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 13:31:09 +0000
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