{"id":6035,"date":"2011-10-10T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=6035"},"modified":"2015-03-19T14:55:50","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T21:55:50","slug":"theres-something-about-mary-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2011\/10\/10\/theres-something-about-mary-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s something about Mary… (Part 3 of 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I’m going to finish this today, I promise! This is the final part of a series responding to a comment which was left on a post<\/a>\u00a0I wrote about the Mother of God. This was the comment:<\/p>\n

“‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.’ If Mary were sinless, why did she need a Savior? Wouldn’t she be lying?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Did she realize Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? When she compared herself to the law of a holy God, had she realized she had formerly, lied, coveted, dishonored her parents by not always obeying them, etc. and like every single person needs a Savior? There are none good, no not one (Romans 3), except Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Also see Romans 11:6. Thank you Jesus, my Savior.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Today I’m going to conclude my exploration of Kelley’s comments and offer some closing thoughts…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Evidence<\/h2>\n

Kelley asked the question:<\/p>\n

When she compared herself to the law of a holy God, had she realized she had formerly, lied, coveted, dishonored her parents by not always obeying them, etc. and like every single person needs a Savior?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The problem with Kelley’s insinuation here is that there is no proof. There is nothing in Scripture that says that Mary lied, coveted etc. It also stands in contrast with the glowing terms in which the Early Church Fathers describe her:<\/p>\n

“Thou and thy mother are the only ones who are totally beautiful in every respect; for in thee, O Lord, there is no spot, and in thy Mother no stain”\u00a0<\/em>– St. Ephraem\u00a0(Nisibene Hymns, 27, v. 8; Ott, 201) c. AD 370<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, Kelley’s objection is understandable.\u00a0Does the idea of a sinless human being blow your mind? It blows mine! But really, to be fair, whenever God is involved, expect to have your mind blown! If we accept the extraordinary fact that a virgin conceived the Son of God, then believing that he also made her sinless and flooded her with grace\u00a0seems like a comparatively simple task. And on that note…<\/p>\n

Amazing Grace<\/h2>\n

Kelley’s comment concluded thus:<\/p>\n

Also see Romans 11:6. Thank you Jesus, my Savior.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I found it rather ironic that Kelley references Romans 11:6, since this passage conclusively proves the\u00a0possibility<\/span>\u00a0of Mary’s sinlessness:<\/p>\n

“…if by grace<\/span>, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace”<\/em>\u00a0– Romans 11:6<\/span><\/p>\n

Do Catholics think that Mary is sinless because of her own merits? Do we think that she was just really, really good of her own accord? No! Absolutely not! It was a work of God’s grace! How does Gabriel refer to Mary at the Annunciation? He greets her with the words\u00a0“Hail, full<\/span> of grace!”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(Luke 1:28). God’s promise to “…put enmity\u00a0between [Satan] and the woman”<\/span><\/em> (Genesis 3:15) had indeed been fulfilled.<\/p>\n

Our God Is An Awesome God<\/h2>\n

I think I’ll draw this series to a close with a question. If the Lord is the all-powerful God who fashioned the universe and flung stars into space, who brought forth the world from nothing, and if He loves us with a love that we don’t deserve and can never merit, isn’t it at least\u00a0possible<\/span>\u00a0that He could have chosen to preserve from sin the woman who was to bring forth the Light of the World?<\/p>\n

Is God big enough, powerful enough, gracious enough and loving enough?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Part 1<\/a> | Part 2<\/a> | Part 3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m going to finish this today, I promise! This is the final part of a series responding to a comment which was left on a post\u00a0I wrote about the Mother of God. This was the comment: “‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.’ If Mary were sinless, why did she need a Savior? Wouldn’t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,17],"tags":[2969,73,448,2609,452],"class_list":["post-6035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics","category-faith","tag-featured","tag-grace","tag-immaculate-conception","tag-something-about-mary","tag-st-ephraem"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6035"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56386,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6035\/revisions\/56386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}