By: Tim Staples
1.
eight
reasons for belief in the Immaculate Conception:
a. Mary
is revealed to be "full of grace" in Luke 1:28 .
b. Mary
is revealed to be the fulfillment of the prophetic "Daughter of Zion"
of Zech. 2:10 ; Zeph. 3:14-16 ; Isaiah 12:1-6 , etc.
c. Mary
is revealed to be "the beginning of the new creation" in
fufillment of the prophecy of Jer.
31:22 .
d. Mary
is revealed to possess a "blessed state" parallel with Christ's in Luke 1:42 .
e. Mary
is not just called "blessed" among women, but "more blessed
than all women" (including Eve) in Luke 1:42 .
f. Mary
is revealed to be the spotless "Ark of the Covenant" in Luke 1 .
g. Mary
is revealed to be the "New Eve" in Luke 1:37-38 ; John 2:4 ; 19:26-27 ; Rev. 12 , and elsewhere.
h. Mary
is revealed to be free from the pangs of labor in fulfillment of Isaiah 66:7-8 .
2. “How
could anyone believe Mary was free from all sin in light of these Scriptures?
What’s more, Mary herself said, ‘My soul rejoices in God my savior’ in Luke 1:47 . She clearly
understood herself to be a sinner if she admits to needing a savior.”
a. Mary
was “saved” from sin in a most sublime manner. She was given the grace to be
“saved” completely from sin so that she never committed even the slightest
transgression. The problem here is Protestants tend to emphasize God’s
“salvation” almost exclusively to the forgiveness of sins actually committed.
However, Sacred Scripture indicates that salvation can also refer to man being
protected from sinning before the fact.
b. Now
to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish
before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior
through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority,
before all time and now and for ever (Jude 24-25 ).
c. The
great Franciscan theologian, Duns Scotus, explained ca. 600 years ago that
falling into sin could be likened to a man approaching unaware a massive
20-feet deep ditch. If he falls into the ditch, he would need someone to lower
a rope and save him. But if someone were to warn him of the danger ahead resulting
in the man not falling into the ditch at all, he would have been saved from
falling in the first place. Analogously, Mary was saved from sin by receiving
the grace to be preserved from it. But she was still saved.
3. The
Exception[s] to the Rule
a. But
what about “all have sinned,” and “if any man says he has no sin he is a liar
and the truth is not in him?” Wouldn’t “all” and/or “any man” include Mary? On
the surface, this sounds reasonable. But this way of thinking carried to its
logical conclusion would list Jesus Christ in the company of sinners as well.
No Christian would dare say that! Yet, no Christian can deny the plain texts of
Scripture declaring Christ’s full humanity either. Thus, if one is going to
take I John 1:8 in a
strict, literal sense, then any man would apply to Jesus as well!
b. we
need to recall that both of these texts—Romans 3:23 and I John 1:8 —are dealing with personal rather than original
sin.
c. Romans 5:12 will deal with
original sin.
d. I John 1:8 obviously refers to
personal sin because in the very next verse, St. John tells us, “If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins…” We do not confess original
sin; we confess personal sins.
e. Romans 3:23 makes clear that it
too refers to personal sin
f. Original
sin is not something we do; it is something we’ve inherited.
g. Romans
chapter three deals with personal sin because it speaks of sins committed by
the sinner. With this in mind, consider this: Has a baby in the womb or a child
of two ever committed a personal sin? No, they haven’t (see Romans 9:11 )! Or, how about the
mentally challenged who do not have the use of their intellects and wills?
These cannot sin because in order to sin a person has to know the act he is
about to perform is sinful while freely engaging his will in carrying it out.
h. Without
the proper faculties to enable them to sin, children before the age of
accountability and anyone who does not have the use of his intellect and will
cannot sin. Right there you have millions of exceptions to Romans 3:23 and I John 1:8 .
4. how
do we know Mary is an exception to the norm of “all have sinned?”
a. LUKE 1:28 :
b. according
to Mary herself, this was no common greeting. The text reveals Mary to have
been “greatly troubled at the saying and considered in her mind what sort of
greeting this might be” (Luke
1:29 , emphasis added). What was it about this greeting that was so
uncommon for Mary to react this way?
c. at
least two key reasons:
d. The
angel actually communicated a new name or title to her. In Greek, the greeting
was kaire, kekaritomene, or “Hail, full of grace.”
e. when
one greeted another with kaire, a name or title would almost be expected to be
found in the immediate context. “Hail, king of the Jews” in John 19:3 and “Claudias Lysias,
to his Excellency the governor Felix, greeting” (Acts 23:26 ) are two biblical
examples of this.
f. in
Hebrew culture, names, and name changes, tell us something that is permanent
about the character and calling of the one named.
g. the
names reveal something permanent about the one named. Abraham and Sarah
transition from being a “father” and “princess” of one family to being “father”
and “princess” or “mother” of the entire people of God
h. Jacob/Israel
becomes the Patriarch whose name, “he who prevails with God,” continues forever
in the Church, which is called “the Israel of God”
5. What’s
in a name? A lot according to Scripture!
a. St.
Luke uses the perfect passive participle, kekaritomene, as his “name” for Mary,
we get deeper insight into the meaning of Mary’s new name.
b. literally
means “she who has been graced” in a completed sense. This verbal adjective, graced,”
is not just describing a simple past action. Greek has the aorist tense for
that. The perfect tense is used to indicate that an action has been completed
in the past resulting in a present state of being. That’s Mary’s name!
c. You
and I sin, not because of grace, but because of a lack of grace, or a lack of
our cooperation with grace, in our lives. This greeting of the angel is one
clue into the unique character and calling of the Mother of God.
6. Objection!
a. Why
wouldn’t we then conclude all Christians are complete in salvation for all
time?
b. the
Catholic Church understands that Christians are completed in grace when they
are baptized.
c. because
of original sin, we can guarantee that though we are certainly perfected in
grace through baptism, ordinarily speaking, we will not stay that way after we
are baptized; that is, if we live for very long afterward
d. only
Mary is given the name “full of grace” and in the perfect tense indicating that
this permanent state of Mary was completed.
7. An
Ancient Prophecy—Genesis 3:15 :
a. the
text says the Messiah would be born of “the seed of the woman” (the “seed” is
normally of the man), but notice “the woman” is not included as “the seed” of
the devil.
b. It
seems that both the woman and her seed are in opposition to and therefore not
under the dominion of the devil and “his seed,” i.e., all who have original sin
and are “by nature children of wrath”
c. the
fact that the woman—Mary—would be without sin, especially original sin, just as
her Son—the Messiah—would be. The emphasis on Mary is truly remarkable in that
the future Messiah was only mentioned in relation to her.
8. Mary , Ark
a. a
picture of the purity and holiness God fittingly demands of those objects
and/or persons most closely associated with himself and the plan of salvation.
Because it would contain the very presence of God symbolized by three types of
the coming Messiah—the manna, the Ten Commandments, and Aaron’s staff—it had to
be most pure and untouched by sinful man
b. How
much more pure would the new and true Ark be when we consider the old ark was a
mere “shadow” in relation to it (see Heb. 10:1 )? This image of Mary as the Ark of the Covenant
is an indicator that Mary would fittingly be free from all contagion of sin in
order for her to be a worthy vessel to bear God in her womb.
c. just
as the Old Covenant ark was pristine from the moment it was constructed with
explicit divine instructions in Exodus
25 , so would Mary be most pure from the moment of her conception.
God, in a
d. sense,
prepared his own dwelling place in both the Old and New Testaments.
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