And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

-Luke 1:41-45, ESV

In my last post, I talked about the importance of Jesus being born of a virgin.  Not only is this doctrine clearly taught in Scripture but it is also absolutely vital to our salvation, so we cannot deny it without being heretics.  But how are we to regard that virgin named Mary?  Some have exalted her enough to border on (if not cross into) the realm worshipping her.  In response, others have disregarded or even maligned her.  To avoid both errors, we need to look at what Scripture says about Mary.

The Catholic Error

The first error is the veneration of Mary by various Catholic doctrines.  I will be the first to admit that I am no expert in Catholic theology.  As with Protestant doctrines, I’m sure there are differing views and nuances to Catholic doctrines that I do not understand.  People believe what they believe for a reason, so it would be foolish of me to think that I could quickly and easily understand and refute these doctrines.  I have no interest in committing the straw man fallacy, so I will not try to refute a simplistic version of these doctrines that disregards those nuances.  Ultimately, this comes down to the inerrancy, authority, and sufficiencyof Scripture, so all I can do is address from Scripture the little I do know.  As always, I am operating under the assumption that Scripture has authority over all human teachings and that nothing that contradicts what is clearly taught in Scripture can be true.

The first of these doctrines is the Immaculate Conception, stating that Mary was miraculously conceived and therefore sinless.  Since Jesus was born without sin, they say that Mary had to be without sin as well, meaning she had to be conceived in a similar fashion as Jesus.  However, Wayne Grudem points out that this is not taught in Scripture and wouldn’t solve the problem anyway, since Mary’s mother would have inherited a sin nature as well.[1]  Instead, Mary like all people was a sinner by nature.  We see this when Jesus’s relatives thought He was crazy and tried to seize Him (Mark 3:21).  Since we see His mother and brothers looking for Him a few verses later (Mark 3:31) without any change in setting, they were likely the relatives in question.  Jesus would later call Peter “Satan” for similarly trying to hinder His ministry (Matthew 16:23, Mark 8:33), so His relatives were sinning here.  But even if that was not the case, Scripture clearly teaches that Mary was a sinner because it clearly teaches that all people are sinners.  No one is righteous (Romans 3:9-18 cf. Psalm 14:1-3,53:1-3) and all have sinned (Romans 3:23 cf. 1 Kings 8:46, 2 Chronicles 6:36, Ecclesiastes 7:20), which means that no one has ever been sinless unless Scripture explicitly states it.  Scripture only makes that statement for Jesus Christ (Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 2:22, 1 John 3:5).  So to claim that Mary was immaculately conceived and sinless is contrary to Scripture and diminishes the glory of the Incarnation.[2]

That error leads to another: exalting Mary as superhuman.  Many Catholics maintain that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life, that she had no other children, and that when she died her body ascended into heaven without decaying.  A smaller group officially consider her co-redeemer, co-mediator, and advocate along with Jesus, though I would argue others do this unofficially when they pray to Mary.[3]  Scripture instead gives every indication that Mary and Joseph had normal relations after Jesus was born (Matthew 1:24-25) and records that Jesus had brothers and sisters (Matthew 13:55-56, Mark 6:3).  It is clear from context that “brothers” and “sisters” are literal in this case, so Mary and Joseph had other children.  Similarly, Scripture has no record of Mary’s body ascending to heaven without decay.  Instead, Scripture teaches that all of our bodies suffer decay at death (Psalm 90:3, Ecclesiastes 3:20), sparing no one from decay unless Scripture explicitly states it.  Enoch (Genesis 5:24, Hebrews 11:5) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:1-11) ascended into heaven without dying, while only Jesus’s body did not suffer decay (Acts 2:24-32 cf. Psalm 16:8-11) between His death and resurrection.  This leaves no room biblically for a belief that Mary’s body didn’t decay like everyone else’s.  Scripture also supports no special status for Mary.  In addition to turning her away along with His brothers in favor of His spiritual siblings (Matthew 12:49-50, Mark 3:33-34, Luke 8:21), Jesus refers to Mary using the impersonal term “woman” during the wedding at Cana (John 2:4) showing that her status as His mother did not grant her any special standing with Him or sway over Him. 

There is also no indication in Scripture that anyone other than Jesus has special status and roles after death, instead teaching that all people (including Mary) die once and are then judged (Hebrews 9:27).  Having abandoned her previous doubts and placed her faith and trust in Jesus, she experienced the same glorification that awaits all saints (Romans 8:29-30, 1 Corinthians 15, etc.) but is no redeemer, mediator, or advocate.  With the exception of references to financial redemption in the Mosaic Law (Leviticus 25:25 cf. Ruth), all Old Testament references to a redeemer refer to God, and its only use in the New Testament refers to Christ (Acts 7:35) showing that He is the sole Redeemer (Galatians 4:5, Titus 2:14).  Also, just as there is only one God, there is only one Mediator between God and men—and that is Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5 cf. Hebrews 8:6, 9:15, 12:24) who along with the Holy Spirit intercedes for us (Romans 8:26-34).  Christ is also our advocate to the Father (1 John 2:1) and the Holy Spirit is our Helper—literally “advocate” (John 14-15).  This leaves no room for Mary to have the roles of co-redeemer, co-mediator, or advocate.[4]

In fact, ascribing these roles to Mary and praying to her elevates her to divine status and is therefore idolatry.  Scripture commands us to pray to God alone (Numbers 21:7, John 15:16,23,26), and every example of prayer we see in Scripture is to God (e.g. Nehemiah 1:6, Job 21:15, Matthew 6, Luke 11).  We are to pray to God the Father through God the Son with the intercession of God the Holy Spirit.  So we should all be careful to avoid putting any mediator between ourselves and Christ.  In response, Catholics may argue that ascribing these roles to Mary does not put her on the same level as Christ, instead envisioning her as a lesser redeemer, mediator, and advocate in much the same way the queen mother in ancient Israel was subordinate to her son the king but had great influence over him.[5]  Yet the only time Scripture records a queen mother’s mediation, it earned the petitioner only wrath from the king (1 Kings 2:13-25).  Likewise, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).  Instead, Scripture tells us explicitly to come to Jesus and no one else (Matthew 11:28, John 5:39-40, 6:37, 7:37).  He is our Redeemer, Mediator, and Advocate, so to approach anyone else to fill that role is to say that Jesus Christ is insufficient.[6] 

And since our relationship with Christ is analogous to the intimacy of husbandand wife (Ephesians 5:22-33), praying to Mary rather than Christ is akin to a wife incessantly talking to her mother-in-law while refusing to talk to her husband, which would rightly incite his jealous anger. As a faithful wife approaches her husband, we the Bride are to approach our loving and gracious King in prayer—to approach anyone else would be an immense insult to Him and likewise draw His anger: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.  Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Psalms 2:12).  If we refuse to approach His throne of grace with confidence to receive mercy and grace from our merciful and sympathetic High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16) and instead out of fear of Him approach another, we are blatantly disobeying His explicit command “come to me” (Matthew 11:28). So we should joyfully approach Him while praising His power (Psalm 45). If we cannot imagine Jesus welcoming us with the joy He suffered to gain (Hebrews 12:2), we are denying what Scripture teaches us about Christ’s nature and therefore committing idolatry by worshipping the Christ of our own imagination.  We must have no other gods (Deuteronomy 32:39, Isaiah 44:6-8, 45:5-6, Hosea 13:4), so we cannot ascribe divine roles to Mary, whether we call it worship or not.[7]  There is a fine line between honor and worship, and considering the evil of our hearts (Jeremiah 17:9) and the filth of our best intentions (Isaiah 64:6), we cannot trust ourselves to stay on the correct side of that line.  Before moving on, I must state that while praying to Mary is idolatry, Catholics certainly don’t have a corner on that market.  Protestants have idols too, which I will address next time.

Scripture’s Depiction of Mary

In an effort to avoid these Catholic errors, Protestants have a tendency to overlook Mary and have even maligned her at times.  Therefore, we Protestants need to practice what we preach and go back to Scripture to accurately view Mary in light of what Scripture says.  Gabriel tells her: “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28) and says she found favor (literally “grace”) with God (verse 30).  Scripture uses the same wording for Noah (Genesis 6:8), Moses (Exodus 33:12-17), and David (Acts 7:46 cf. 2 Samuel 7).  Since grace means unmerited favor, Mary received grace from God as a free gift independent of her merit.

The pattern of Scripture is that God gives grace through the vehicle of faith, so unsurprisingly that grace was accompanied by incredible faith.  We see this in Mary’s question to Gabriel. Like Zechariah a few months earlier, she asks him how this miraculous conception would happen (Luke 1:34), but the similarities end there.  Zechariah’s question came from a lack of faith, resulting in Gabriel’s rebuke (Luke 1:18-20).  This was because he was questioning a conception that while miraculous was certainly not unprecedented in redemptive history.  He was receiving essentially the same promise that Sarah (Genesis 17:15-16), Manoah’s wife (Judges 13:3), and the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:12-16) had received from God.  As a Levite, he of all people should have recognized this sign and believed without hesitation.  Instead, he questioned this sign and was therefore struck mute until he saw God fulfill His promise (Luke 1:20-22). 

In contrast, the promise Mary received was unprecedented, so she was not exhibiting a lack of faith but a perfectly-justified lack of understanding.  She believed this promise of God was going to happen but wanted to understand how it was going to happen.  Specifically, she needed to know if there were any special instructions like Manoah’s wife had received, so Gabriel answered without rebuke.  As we discussed last time, Gabriel simply said that this would be the work of the Holy Spirit.  That was enough to satisfy Mary, showing an astounding amount of faith.  She didn’t ask for details, how this would impact her life, or how God would protect and sustain her.  She simply responded by affirming that she was God’s servant and therefore submitted completely to His Will (Luke 1:38). 

We need to pause and reflect on the magnitude of that statement.  Mary knew that it was quite possible that she would be killed when people found out she was pregnant. But she also knew God had to keep His promise. He had promised she would give birth but not that she wouldn’t be killed. So she knew that she had to give birth to this baby—even if God had to raise her from the dead to do it. This means that she like Abraham had faith in resurrection (Romans 4, Hebrews 11:19). Regardless, Joseph would likely divorce her (Matthew 1:19) and people would despise her as a “sinner” (John 8:41).[8]  Her trust in God to sustain her and fulfill His Word superseded these risks.  Though the sword of adversity would pierce her soul with many pains (Luke 2:35), she could say with Job “though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15).  In doing so, she joined the ranks of the holy women of old who trusted God and therefore did not fear any peril (1 Peter 3:5-6). 

We can also conclude that Mary’s faith produced righteous living, as evidenced by the fact that Joseph upon learning she was pregnant (but before Gabriel visited him) was unwilling to put her to shame (Matthew 1:18-19).  Certainly that displays his righteousness but it also displays hers, as even the most righteous man without divine intervention would not have hesitated to divorce her (or worse) had she not demonstrated a pattern of righteous living. And while all indications are that she had at least one season of doubt as we discussed earlier, that did not diminish her faith in the long term.  John the Baptist similarly experienced doubt for a season (Luke 7:19-20), but Jesus still said no mere mortal was greater than John the Baptist (Luke 7:28).  Furthermore, God does not let any of our trials go to waste, including our seasons of doubt, so God strengthened the faith of John the Baptist and Mary through their seasons of doubt just as He did with Peter (Luke 22:31-32).  This is incredibly encouraging for all of us. 

Finally, Mary’s faith was accompanied by humility.  She responds to Elizabeth’s greeting by worshipping God and acknowledging that her blessings were from God: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.  For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name” (Luke 1:46b-49).  This shows the remarkable humility that comes from true faith characterized by a complete reliance on God.  She says future generations would call her blessed because “he who is mighty has done great things for me” (Luke 1:49).  In essence, Mary was a woman of faith who believed that God would fulfill His incredible promises to her—a faith that resulted in righteousness and humility.  Elizabeth summed it up best: “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1:45).  And for that, we should honor her and imitate her faith just like other saints who have gone before us (1 Corinthians 11:1, 1 Thessalonians 1:6).

In conclusion, Scripture clearly teaches that Mary was not sinless and is not co-redeemer or co-mediator but was a woman of great faith and virtue.  We should not overlook or venerate her.  Instead, we should honor her, acknowledging God’s grace upon her life, her willingness to be used by Him, her complete trust that God would fulfill His promise to her (even if he had to raise her from the dead), and how despite a season of doubt she persevered in faith to the end.  This Advent season, let us thank God the Father through our only Mediator Jesus Christ that He chose to use this amazing woman of faith to bear, raise, and ultimately believe in our Savior.  Let us say with her “I am the Lord’s servant; may it be to me according to His Will.”  And let us praise God as she did:

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.  For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

-Luke 1:46-55, ESV

NOTES:

[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 531-532.

[2] For a summary of this view and biblical responses, see the “Mary and the Saints” section of Got Questions

[3] Catholics will say that asking Mary or the saints to pray for them is the same as asking friends to pray for them.  There is certainly Scriptural precedent to ask others to pray for us and commands us to pray for others (eg. 1 Samuel 7:5, 1 Kings 13:6, Job 42:8, Colossians 4:3, 1 Timothy 2:1-8, James 5:16), but there is no Scriptural precedent to ask anyone who has already died to pray for you.  We must not go to the dead (including Mary) on behalf of the living (Isaiah 8:19). Scripture instead indicates that those who have died would not hear such prayers (eg. Psalm 88:10, 115:17, Ecclesiastes 9:10, Isaiah 38:18), so at the very least we are better off praying to God directly since Scripture is clear that He hears our prayers.

[4] R.C. Sproul “Mary’s Fiat”, Dr. Robert Godfrey talking about Rome’s teaching about Mary in the early church and 20th Century,

[5] Dr. Mark I. Miravalle, Mary: Coredemtrix, Mediatrix, Advocate, Goleta, CA: Queenship Publishing: 1993, available here, 27 December 2002.  Dr. Miravalle also has thoughtful answers to common rebuttals using Scripture as well as church teachings and traditions, though he is using Scripture out of context.

[6] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2021: 283; John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion: Translated from the First French Edition of 1541 by Robert White, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2014: 529-533.

[7] R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur address this subject here.  See also Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 1994: 864-867 and John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion: Translated from the First French Edition of 1541 by Robert White, Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust: 2014: 275-276

[8] Josh McDowell, The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson: 1999: 124-125.