We believe that Mary was a sinner like all humans. She needed a Savior. A wonderful pious woman, yes. But just a woman.
The idea that she never sinned is repugnant for two reasons 1)Christ is the only person who has ever lived without sin. 2)God would have punished a non-sinner with death. Christ's death does not apply here for he became sin for us. The wages of sin is death. If Mary never sinned, then she was made to pay for sins she never committed - for she died.
The Orthodox definitly beleive Mary needed a savior.
"We believe that Mary was a sinner like all humans. She needed a Savior. A wonderful pious woman, yes. But just a woman.
The idea that she never sinned is repugnant for two reasons 1)Christ is the only person who has ever lived without sin. 2)God would have punished a non-sinner with death. Christ's death does not apply here for he became sin for us. The wages of sin is death. If Mary never sinned, then she was made to pay for sins she never committed - for she died."
As I think I have said before, believing that the Theotokos sinned is not some modern Protestant innovation. Sveral of the Fathers, +John Chrysostomos among them, believed that she did. The consensus of the Fathers is, however, otherwise. But that, B, says nothing about her needing a savior. In so saying, you have pointed to what I see as a flaw in the Latin dogma of the Immaculate Conception. If indeed the Theotokos did not live with a nature distorted by the Sin of Adam, the effects of which were absolute bondage to death, then indeed it is a fair question to ask for what reason she needed a savior. Orthodoxy believes that she was graced in such a manner as to avoid all sin in her lifetime, but that was because of her perfect response to God's grace. It has absolutely nothing to do with being born with a different nature than you or me and it is that nature, the one we are born with, which necessitated Christ's death and resurrection, as much for her as for us.