Was Mary born without sin?
(Immaculate Conception)

Does the Immaculate Conception mean that Mary's parents didn't have sex?

Some people think the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception means that Catholics are saying Mary's mother was a virgin when she conceived Mary. That's is a misconception of Catholic teaching. Mary's parents conceived her in the usual way. There was nothing special about that. The Immaculate Conception simply means that through the merits of Jesus, Mary was preserved from original sin. I'll try to unpack that a bit in this article.

One of the things I think we need to consider when thinking about the immaculate conception is: "Could God do it if he wanted to?" I think anyone would say "God can do anything." So I think the question remains "why would God conceive Mary without sin?

Didn't Mary need a Saviour?

I received an email from an Evangelical that said:

"Mary needed a Saviour." 

Catholics totally agree. Mary spoke in tongues with the apostles at the Pentecost. (Acts 1:14, 2:3) In fact, she was probably the first Christian. Here is the doctrine:

We pronounce and define that the doctrine which states that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary was in the first instant of her conception, by the singular grace and privilege of God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. (Pope Pius IX, 1854)

It is fundamental Dogma that Mary needed a Saviour.

Christ, as the Church teaches, "conquered the enemy of the human race alone (solus)" (D711); In the same way, He alone acquired the grace of Redemption for the whole human race, including Mary..." (Dr. Ludwigg Otto, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma 212-13)

Catholics believe that Mary was saved by God from sin, but in a preventative way. Art Sippo puts it this way:

Catholic Christianity does believe that Mary was a sinner. Not an ACTUAL sinner, but a POTENTIAL sinner who was redeemed by God from the moment of her conception so that she never fell into sin. So yes, Mary was redeemed, but she was also predestined by God to bear his Son and so she was upheld from falling into sin.

The following is an imperfect analogy. Imagine I am parachuting and falling through the air into quicksand. Suddenly, a gust of wind comes along and blows me away from the quicksand. I would say that at the moment of conception all human beings fall into a pit of quicksand called original sin. But in Mary's case God intervened and protected her from this at the moment of her conception by the merits of Jesus. She has no power or merit of her own that prevented her from falling into the quicksand of original sin. It was Divine Mercy which was preparing a place for the Incarnation. God was preparing an Ark of the Covenant to carry the Word of God.

Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant

God ordered the Jewish people to to make the Ark of the Covenant pure and just right to carry the Word of God that he had written on tablets. (Ex. 25:10) How much more would God prepare Mary, the New Ark of the Covenant, to carry the Word of God made flesh. (Rev 11:19) A full discussion of Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant is here.

Martin Luther, the father of the reform talks about the Immaculate Conception

Three hundred years before it was declared Dogma, the Protestant reformer Martin Luther said:

"....so that while the soul was being infused, she would at the same time be cleansed from original sin...............And thus, in the very moment in which she began to live, she was without all sin." (Martin Luther's Works, vol 4, pg 694)

"God has formed the soul and body of the Virgin Mary full of the Holy Spirit, so that she is without all sins, " (ibid. vol 52, pg 39)

". . . she is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin. . . . God's grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil. . . . God is with her, meaning that all she did or left undone is divine and the action of God in her. Moreover, God guarded and protected her from all that might be hurtful to her." (Ref: Luther's Works, American edition, vol. 43, p. 40, ed. H. Lehmann, Fortress, 1968)

How could Jesus prevent Mary from falling into original sin 16 years before He was born?

Jesus is not a slave to time. Jesus was the rock in the desert  that provided water for the Israelites fleeing Egypt long before he was born. (Exo 17:6). John says "He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him." (Jn 1:2-3). Elijah was taken up to heaven before Christ was born. There is a mystery in Jesus and our 3.5 pound brains have trouble understanding God's timelessness. It must also be noted that Mary was not "saved" at the Immaculate Conception. Nor was she deprived of her free will. She could have chosen to sin. She could could have even said "No" to the Archangel Gabriel, then we all would have been in a real jackpot. At the time of her conception, she was given the grace that most of us receive at baptism, more about that below. If you understand the Catholic conception of baptism you can grasp some of the basic ideas of the Immaculate Conception.

Why did Mary have to be sinless to give birth to Christ?

On a message board, an Evangelical said.

If Jesus had human blood in His veins, then it was defiled. His blood is perfect, pure and precious, untainted. However, the Catholic Church teaches a doctrine that puts a human element in our salvation - Mary.

This gets to the heart of the question. Why would God create Jesus in a sinful human vessel? I believe the answer is that He didn't. He purified the vessel. That is what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is all about. So our friend is mistaken about what we teach.

Most Evangelical theologians teach that the virgin birth was necessary to separate Jesus from the sin of Adam.

I was recently listening to the popular Evangelical radio program "A Love Worth Finding" which features the late Pastor Adrian Roger's. The show plays on hundreds of stations around the world. Pastor Adrian was defending the necessity for a virgin birth. He said something very powerful:

"Jesus had to be born through a virgin birth because he could not be corrupted by original sin of Adam."
(CHRI Radio, Dec 23, 2006)

This is absolutely true, but Pastor Adrian seems to be missing something in this reasoning. Original sin don't just come through bloodline of the human father. It comes through the mother also. We are born into sin both through our mother and through our earthly father. Jesus was born of Mary and if she would have been infected with original sin, then Jesus would have been infected also. Original sin is kind of like the HIV virus or alcoholism. If the mother has it during pregnancy then the child gets it. Of course every mother (except Mary) has original sin.

In order for the good pastor's logic to make sense in his defense of the virgin birth, there would also have to be a way to purify the vessel of Mary before Jesus was conceived. We Catholics believe the God prepared this place by freeing Mary of the burden of original sin. If she was conceived with original sin, then Jesus who is spotless would be at enmity with his mother at the moment of his conception.

In the radio show, Pastor Adrian Rogers was comparing the purity of Jesus to the sin of Adam. I think that is very interesting. The early Christians did that and also compared Mary (the Mother of the living) to Eve (the Mother of the dead). Eve's cooperation with Satan led Adam to introduce death into the world. Mary's cooperation with God introduced Jesus and life to the world. Scripture tells us Eve was conceived without sin. The Church has always believed it is only fitting that the new Eve (Mary) should be born without sin also.

Adam and Eve were conceived without sin, Mary is more holy than Eve

Scripture tells us that besides Jesus, God conceived two other humans without sin. They were Adam and Eve. They were conceived in a sinless state. Catholics believe that Mary's is the new Eve.

Eve	Mary
Eve came out of Adam's body (rib)	Jesus, the new Adam (1 Cor 15:22) came out of Mary's body.
Eve was approached by an angel - a fallen archangel - satan. This fallen angel made a proposition to Eve to eat the fruit, to which Eve said "yes" which set in motion the fall.	Mary was approached by the Archangel Gabriel. Mary said "yes" which set in motion the Birth of the Saviour.
Adam was conquered by sin though a tree.Eve was there at the foot of the tree when sin conquered man.	Jesus conquered sin on a tree (the Cross is often called a "tree " in Scripture). Mary was at the foot of the "tree" (the cross) when sin was conquered by man (God).

A more complete comparison table of Mary as the New Eve is here.

We think that Mary is gazillion times more faithful, holy and stainless than Eve. If God conceived Eve without sin, then we think it is logical that he also conceived Mary without sin. We will explore the Scripture quote "All have sinned and fallen short of God" below.

Some Evangelicals believe that every human being is immaculately conceived.

Some Evangelical churches teach that before the age of reason, everyone is bound for heaven. They believe that humans only begin sinning when they reach the age of reason, and when they consciously choose sin. Given those beliefs they would say that everyone is conceived without sin because conception is certainly before the age of reason. Yet these same Evangelicals have a sudden revulsion when a Catholic mentions that Mary is conceived without sin. It seems they are saying that everyone is conceived without sin except for Mary the Mother of Jesus.

As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called "concupiscence"). Catechism 418

Catholics believe that humanity's "Separation from God" is the result of "original sin" from Adam and Eve, our first parents. Catholics believe we are born into "original sin." Original sin and personal sin is the source of our damnation.

Baptism and the Immaculate Conception

Catholics believe the role of baptism is to cleanse us of original sin that began with Adam eating the apple in the garden of Eden, that caused the downfall of humankind, and introduced death into the world. Catholics baptize shortly after birth to wash away the original sin and to infuse the child with the grace of the Holy Spirit. What the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is saying is that in the case of Mary, this baptism was kind of moved forward to the moment of her conception. In this way the effects of original sin never affected her.

The Angel Gabriel's words support the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception

Catholics believe that when the Archangel Gabriel said "Hail Mary, full of grace"  (Lk 1:28), he was saying a lot more than "Hey Mary, how ya doin', you're cool". Catholics believe Gabriel was saying something about the nature of Mary, that Christians would recognize until the end of time. The Greek words he used were "Chaire, kecharitomene!". [Caire, kecaritomene!]. So let's check out the grammar of it. John Pacheco says the following:

"kecharitomene".. is a perfect passive participle. It means one endowed with favour or grace in a "permanent or perfect" fashion. According to Greek grammatical lexicons, the perfect stem of a Greek verb means the 'perpetuation of a permanent result or completed action'.

Catholics believe Gabriel chose his words carefully. His greeting to Mary was very different from his greeting to Zachariah whom he called by name. Catholics believe Mary was called by her title.

Catholics believe in order for Mary's soul to Magnify the Lord (Lk 1:46), her soul would need to be sinless.

How come it took Catholics 1800 years to decide Mary was conceived without sin?

The Immaculate Conception was defined as a pious belief in 1453 and declared a doctrine by Pope Pius in 1854. But we must realize that the Church does not make something Dogma out of thin air. It is made Dogma after many centuries of careful considerations. For instance the Trinity took 300 years to turn into Dogma. The New Testament itself took 400 years. We Catholics are not in a rush to cement doctrine. We take our time.

This belief was a part of the early Church and has always been held as a pious belief by the faithful. We didn't just pull this stuff out of thin air. In fact Martin Luther, the father of the reform spoke about it 300 years before it became Dogma. The early CHurch father were talking about a millennium before that. Here is what some the greatest Christians were saying over 1600 years ago.

It becomes you to be mindful of us, as you stand near Him who granted you all graces, for you are the Mother of God and our Queen. Help us for the sake of the King, the Lord God Master Who was born of you. For this reason you are called 'full of Grace'..." (373 A.D., St. Athanasius)

Blessed Virgin, immaculate and pure you are the sinless Mother of your Son, the mighty Lord of the universe. You are holy and inviolate, the hope of the hopeless and sinful; we sing your praises. We praise you as full of every grace, for you bore the God-Man. We all venerate you; we invoke you and implore your aid...Holy and immaculate Virgin...be our intercessor and advocate at the hour of death and judgment...you are holy in the sight of God, to Whom be honor and glory, majesty, and power forever (373 A.D., St. Ephrem of Edessa)

You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than the others; for here is no blemish in you, nor any stains upon your Mother. (St. Ephraim, Nisibene Hymns, 27:8, 370)

If any of us could make our mom's immaculate, wouldn't we?

One question Scott Hahn asks people who doubt the validity of Mary's "Immaculate Conception" is this. If you could make your mom completely free of all the effects of original sin would you do it? I believe most of us would say "yes, certainly." Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to do it because we are not God. However, Jesus is God and he could do it. Catholics believe he did do it.

Chart comparing Mary to Eve

The Fall	The Redemption
The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Gen. 2:18)	"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. (Luke 1:38) a servant is a helper
The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called 'Woman', because she was taken out of Man...(Gen. 2:23)	And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come." (John 2:4) "woman" is an odd title for his Mother, and unusual for the day, Catholics think there was a reason Jesus used that word
Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. (Gen. 2:22) Eve came out of Adam	But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. (Galatians 4:4-5) Jesus,the new Adam (1 Cor 15:22) came out of Mary (the new Eve)
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Gen.3:1)	his mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." (John 2:5) on one level she is amending the disobedience of Eve
Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." (Gen. 3:13) Note: satan was a fallen angel	And Mary said, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:38) Mary's obedience vs. Eve's disobedience Note: Gabriel was a faithful angel. (Both Eve and Mary were approached by angels with a proposition.)
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. (Gen. 3:20)	When Jesus then saw his mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" (John 19:26-27) Catholics believe at that moment Mary was given as mother to all Christians. (As per Rev 19:26, explained below)

Conclusion

So there it the 'big stuff' about Mary. The stuff that irks Evangelicals. I am not an apologist. There is much more that could be said here in defense of these doctrines (see my links page for a list of apologetics who love to do that kind of thing). This article is intended to be a sketch of why the Church believes what it believes about Mary. Apart from all this doctrine and stuff, the reason I believe that Mary is in heaven helping us is because I had an experience with Mary that I cannot refute. No one can tell me she is dead. To me she is as plain as day. She is a friend who prays for me and she has shown me very cool things about her Son, Jesus. I believe I am a better Christian today because of Mary.

If you are afraid to talk to Mary, I invite you to pray to Jesus about Mary. I'm sure any Evangelical would say it is perfectly safe to pray to Jesus about anything. Ask Jesus what's up with Mary. Give him time to respond. I pray you have the same experience that has led to my powerful convictions about the validity of Mary as a helper for the helpless, and a great prayer warrior.

  ©2002 David MacDonald

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Other Topics on Mary

Mary in Scripture
Mary, Mediatrix, co-redemptix
The Rosary
Is Mary a Pagan Goddess?
Martin Luther's quotes about Mary
Mary in the early Church and today
Do Catholics pray to Mary?
David's experience with Mary
Repetitious Prayers?
Did Mary have a bunch of kids?
Immaculate Conception
Apparitions
 

 

Sources: Martin Beckman
J. Roy MacIntyre "My Soul Magnifies the Lord"
John Pacheco's refutation of Jame's White "Mary: Another Redeemer?"
Rev. Lawence G. Lovasik, S.V.D. "Mary My Hope"