The Church has a simple and sensible answer to this difficulty. It is this: Mary, too, required a Savior. Like all other descendants of Adam, by her nature she was subject to the necessity of contracting Original Sin. But by a special intervention of God, undertaken at the instant she was conceived, she was preserved from the stain of Original Sin and certain of its consequences. She was therefore redeemed by the grace of Christ, but in a special way, by anticipation. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception thus does not contradict Luke 1:47.God bless.
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Prot Theology: "But by a special intervention of God, undertaken at the instant she conceived"
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The biblical accounts clearly emphasize the miraculous nature of Mary's impregnation. Please explain why a second miracle, unrecorded in the Bible, needs to be posited. An omnipotent God can, and I believe did, miraculous preserve the Saviour from the taint of original sin at the point of Mary's impregnation.
“The Church has a simple and sensible answer to this difficulty. It is this: Mary, too, required a Savior. Like all other descendants of Adam, by her nature she was subject to the necessity of contracting Original Sin. But by a special intervention of God, undertaken at the instant she was conceived, she was preserved from the stain of Original Sin and certain of its consequences. She was therefore redeemed by the grace of Christ, but in a special way, by anticipation. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception thus does not contradict Luke 1:47.”
Notwithstanding this explanation, which I have heard, there are some implications to this that cannot be overlooked. If Mary was conceived with Original Sin, she also experienced no taint of her free will, and would have been free, in her own natural flesh never to sin. This means that if she ever did sin (and I believe she did, because I reject the Immaculate Conception), she would have been totally unworthy to be Jesus’ mother, and would have been the most despicable person on the face of the earth, because KNOWING the nature of sin and being able to choose otherwise, she chose to sin anyway. It boggles my mind that it would be possible to assert that Mary was conceived without sin, and this was necessary so Jesus would be conceived without sin, because of the two, Jesus is God, and Mary is a creature. In particular, remember that the Bible makes it plain that there is not one person who is without sin, and these verses do not say everyone is a sinner EXCEPT Mary. See for example: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Romans 3:23 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. I John 1:8. You would think that if Mary had been conceived without sin, this would be such an important issue that the Bible would have talked about it, but the Bible is silent. There is strong evidence that the sin nature is passed down to the offspring through the father, since Eve was deceived, but Adam knowingly sinned. Because Mary had an earthly father, but Jesus didn’t, and was “seed of the woman”, it would not have been possible for her to be conceived without the sin nature. But of necessity, Jesus was the spotless Lamb, and had no sin nature. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception has far-reaching consequences for doctrine in general. In fact, it could be said that by the time everything is said and done, worship of Mary would be perfectly proper, and many other doctrines many of us believe are in error, grow out of this one. And yes, I do agree. Some of the things people say to and sing to Mary (if that were possible) are clearly worship.