This explanation might be of some help:
The Immaculate Conception
For He has looked upon His handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name.
Luke 1:48-49
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is one of the most difficult doctrines for non-Catholics to accept. It is most often misunderstood. It is sometimes confused with the virginal conception of Jesus. Some see it as glorifying Mary to the level of a goddess. Others believe that it contradicts the Bible. Still others claim it to be a human doctrine, since Pope Pius IX defined it as late as 1854.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC):
Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" (Luke 1:28) through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: "The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." [CCC 491]
God calls us to become His adopted children and sharers in eternal life (Rom. 8:12-25). Grace is the free, undeserved help that God gives us to respond to His call (CCC 1996; 1 Cor. 15:10). In particular, sanctifying grace is a gift from God that perfects our soul so that we may live with Him and act by His love (CCC 2000; Titus 3:7). Sin, on the other hand, is our rejection of God and His call through willful disobedience (CCC 386; Rom. 6:11-23), while original sin is our original loss of sanctifying grace due to Adam's sin (CCC 396-421; Rom. 5:12-21). Mary's Immaculate Conception is a special gift from God preserving her from original sin and concupiscence - the inclination to sin. Mary always had sanctifying grace. By God's grace, she remained free of every personal sin all her life (CCC 493).
Some Christians may claim that this doctrine makes Mary into a god. Somehow these people confuse sinlessness with divinity. Adam and Eve were human creatures but sinless before the Fall. Ironically Adam's sin was an attempt to become a god (Gen. 3:5). Also the angels in heaven are only creatures yet sinless (2 Peter 2:4). In the same manner, Mary's gift does not make her divine, but allows her always to respond to God's call.
Others claim that Mary, if truly sinless, would not need a Savior. Yet in her Magnificat, Mary admits that God was her Savior (Luke 1:47). Now according to this doctrine, Mary was saved by anticipation and not by forgiveness. We are saved by forgiveness, since we sinned. But by anticipating the merits of Christ, God saved Mary before she fell in the mire of sin. As an example, a child can be saved from drowning after he falls into a swimming pool. He also could be saved from drowning by grabbing him before he falls in the pool. Our redemption is "healing medicine," but her redemption was like a "vaccine." She was always immune from sin, even venial sin (CCC 493). This is the most perfect kind of redemption.
Some may cite Romans 3:23, "all have sinned" [RSV] against this doctrine. Now "all" need not include absolutely everyone. Obviously Jesus (1 Peter 2:22) is not included. Also Romans 3:24 would otherwise imply that absolutely everyone will be justified, including unbelievers, so Hell would be empty. In the same passage, St. Paul writes that "none is righteous, no, not one" [Romans 3:10]. Yet elsewhere Noah, Daniel, Job (Ezek. 14:14,20), Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1:6) are said to be righteous. St. Paul does not intend "absolutely everyone" but is stressing the universality of sin for both Jews and Gentiles. Even though this verse applies to us, it does not apply to Jesus or Mary. On a related issue, Mary makes a "sin offering" in Luke 2:24 to fulfill the Law. This duty does not prove her sinfulness but her obedience. Similarly Jesus underwent John's "baptism of repentance" even though sinless.
The main Bible text that suggests this doctrine is the Angel Gabriel's greeting to Mary:
"Hail, full of grace (kecharitomene), the Lord is with you!" [Luke 1:28, RSVCE]
The Greek word, kecharitomene, is the perfect passive participle of the Greek verb, charitoo, meaning to grace or favor. The perfect tense denotes completion or fullness. It can be translated as "completely graced" or "fully favored." St. Jerome in the 4th century translated it into Latin as, gratia plena, or "full of grace." Even some Protestant Bibles render it as "highly favored one" (NIV & KJV). In this verse Gabriel does not address her as "Hail, Mary" but as "Hail, full of grace." Gabriel uses this participle as a name or title for Mary. In Acts 6:8, St. Stephen is said to be "full of grace" according to the RSV, but this phrase is used as a description and not as a title. Mary is named "Full-of-Grace", which includes sanctifying grace. Grace is opposed to sin (Rom. 5:21). This verse may not prove the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, but it would be an odd greeting otherwise. Elsewhere in the Bible, Elizabeth under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit declares to Mary:
"Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" [Luke 1:42, RSV; also see 48]
In this poetic parallel, Mary's blessing from God is compared to the blessing that rests on her Son - the fruit of her womb. Jesus was blessed in His humanity by being sinless (Hebrews 4:15) even while in her womb. Mary was blessed by God as the mother of His Son and in her freedom from sin.
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception developed slowly through the centuries. Some divinely revealed truths take time for us to fully understand. Its development can be traced back to God's words to the serpent:
"I will put enmity between you (serpent) and the woman and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel."[Genesis 3:15, RSV]
This verse is seen as the promise of the Redeemer. "He" and "her seed" refer to Christ. "Woman" and "her" can refer to Eve, but they apply better to Mary (John 19:26). Luke's Annunciation scene (Luke 1:26-38,42) appears to contrast the Eve-serpent scene (Gen. 3:1-7): Mary vs. Eve, Gabriel vs. Satan (Rev. 12:9) as serpent, Fruit of the womb vs. fruit of the tree. In Romans 5:14 and 1 Cor. 15:44-49, St. Paul sees Jesus Christ as the New Adam. In like fashion, St. Justin Martyr in 155 A.D. saw Mary as the New Eve: "For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy... And by her has He (Jesus) been born." [Dialogue with Trypho 100] St. Irenaeus in 190 A.D. wrote: "Eve was...the cause of death...; so also did Mary...become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race...The knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith." [Against Heresies III 22:4] Jesus Christ as the New Adam corrected Adam's sin by His Cross, while Mary as the New Eve undid Eve's disobedience by saying yes to God (Luke 1:38). Around 360 A.D., St. Ephraem the Syrian was the first to clearly write on Mary's sinlessness. He saw Mary as a replica of Eve before the Fall: she "was as innocent as Eve before her fall, a virgin most estranged from every stain of sin, more holy than the Seraphim." The Church Fathers of the east also called Mary "the All-Holy" (Panagia) and proclaimed her as "free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature" [CCC 493]. Unfortunately some people went too far, such as the Pelagian heretics who tried to use Mary to prove their "sinless conception." This caused negative reactions. In the east, the feast of Mary's conception was already being celebrated by the 7th century. By the 12th century, it was clearly recognized that Mary, like Eve before the Fall, was sinless even at the first moments of her existence, i.e. at her conception. Gabriel's odd greeting (Luke 1:28) was starting to make more sense. St. Bernard and St. Thomas Aquinas had theological objections, but by the 14th century, John Duns Scotus resolved the objections. Finally in 1854, Pope Pius IX formally confirmed this ancient belief in precise language.
Mary is sinless by a special, unmerited gift of God and not by her own power. Even though we have free will, concupiscence inclines us to sin (Rom. 7:15-25), while Mary's gift inclined her towards God. Like us she needed redemption, but Almighty God redeemed her at conception by the anticipated merits of her Son. She did not have to be sinless because Jesus is sinless. So her mother did not need to be sinless and so on. God the Father simply gave Mary this singular privilege for being the mother of His only begotten Son (John 1:14,18). Nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37), Who is not limited by time. As the British monk, Eadmer reasoned: "God could do it; God should do it; so God did it."
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http://users.binary.net/polycarp/immac.htmlAnd then there's this:
MARY AND ROMANS 3:23 Romans 3:23
“since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” RSV Some people contend that the above verse means that Mary must have sinned. However, consider the following.
1. Protestant Dictionary - Strong’s : “all”
2. Consistency
3. Biblical Examples
4. How Was Mary Saved ?
See related issue:
Romans 3:10 –
“None is righteous”
and
Jesus' Unique Quality
to Redeem Us
1. Strong’s Definition for the word : “all”
Consider the Greek. Romans 3:23 and 5:12, (“all have sinned”) use the Greek word “pantes” for “all.”
“Pantes” is a derivative of “pas,” which has the following meaning, according to Strong's Lexicon:
| Strong's Lexicon
[quotation]
3956 pas { pas} . . . GK - 4246 { pa`” } 1) individually
1a) each, every, any, all, the whole, everyone, all things, everything
2) collectively
2a) some of all types “.... the whole world has gone after him” [John 12:19 ] Did all the world go after Christ? “then went all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan.” [Matt. 3: 5-6] Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem, baptized in Jordan? “Ye are of God, little children”, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one”. [1 John 5:19] Does the whole world there mean everybody? The words “world” and “all” are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture, and it is very rarely the “all” means all persons, taken individually. The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts -- some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted His redemption to either Jew or Gentile ... C.H. Spurgeon from a sermon on Particular Redemption
Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc..) 1995. End Quotation:
[The Scriptural passages have been identified which is not done in the original text.]
|
2. Consistency
Actually if the word "all" could only mean "each and ever individual without exception," then it would end up proving even more than what the Protestant would want it to. Since Jesus is fully human it would have to mean that He also sinned, but this is obviously false. Cf. Hebrews 4: 15. Once a person accepts an exception to the word "all" it then becomes impossible to prove that there are no other exceptions by simply quoting this same verse. The word "all" is to be understood in the collective sense rather than in the distributive sense to ever individual. In the collective sense it applies to some of all types, and allows for some exceptions.
Webster’s New International Dictionary second edition unabridged 1934, page 67, gives as the seventh definition for the word "all" as "Nearly the whole of; nearly every one of; - used hyperbolically; as, all men held John as a prophet."
Luke 1:5-6 "… there was a priest named Zechariah … his wife … Elizabeth. Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly." NAB
However, if one assumes that the word "all" does not allow for exceptions then, Zechariah and Elizabeth, who observed "all" the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly, are exceptions to "all have sinned" in Romans 3:23. However, if this person maintains that Zechariah and Elizabeth must have sinned in some way then he is forced to accept that the word "all" in Luke 1: 6 is to be understood so as to allow for some exception. Either way the word "all" must be allowed to be understood in the collective sense and permitting some exceptions. With that demonstrated it is no longer possible to maintain that the definition of the word "all" in Romans 3:23 never allows for exceptions.
Some Protestants might be hesitant to accept the Catholic teaching because they know that no one is righteous apart from Christ. However, this is where they misunderstand Catholicism. Catholics agree that all righteousness comes from Christ. Mary was never separated from Jesus and His Saving Grace. She was saved by God’s grace from the first moment of her conception as a special gift from God.
That she would always be protected from the Devil and never on his side was prophesied when God said to the Devil in Genesis 3: 14-15 "The Lord God said to the serpent … I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." RSV This is a prophesy about the Devil, and a woman, and the Messiah - the seed of the woman who would give Him birth. To be at enmity means to be an enemy of and in opposition to. This could not be true if the “woman” ever sinned. 1 John 3:8 “Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.” NAB Jesus calls Mary “woman” in John 19:26 and 2:4 and every Christian agrees that it was she who gave birth to the Messiah. Therefore, Mary is the “woman” in Genesis 3:15. And by the grace that was won by the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ which was applied to her at the moment of her conception in her mother’s, Saint Anne’s, womb and by Mary’s total cooperation with that grace she remained without sin, and thus she was at enmity with Satan. Therefore, God’s prophesy of Genesis 3:15 was fulfilled in His work in Mary.
Revelation 12:1, 5, 17 "A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars… 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne… 17 Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God’s commandments and bear witness to Jesus." NAB
That Mary is without sin is evident by the fact that the Angel who delivers God’s message, says that she is full of grace in Luke 1: 28 "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women." In the Greek the word for "full of grace" is "kecharitomene." She is full of grace so there is no room for sin in her.
3. Biblical Examples of the word “all.”
The following are more examples of the word “all” being used in the collective sense meaning a very large number, but allowing for some exceptions.
Romans 15:14
“I myself am satisfied about you, my brethren, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.” RSV
However, only God has infinite “all” knowledge.
1 Corinthians 15:22
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” RSV
And the Bible tells us that Enoch and Elijah did not die, Genesis 5:24 and 2 Kings 2:11. Also see Hebrews 11:5 “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him.” RSV
And not “all” choose to follow God. Some chose death and eternal damnation.
Romans 1:29
“Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers” KJV
Matthew 3:5-6
“Then went out to him [John the Baptist] Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” RSV
And yet did “all” Jerusalem to him ? Did the Pharisees go too ?
Luke 2:1
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.”
Did Caesar tax the people from South Africa, India, China, and South America ? How could he when he did not even control the whole world ?
Matthew 2:3
“When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him”
Matthew 26:56
“ … Then all the disciples left him [Jesus] and fled.”
But we read in just two verses later that Peter did follow Christ in Matthew 26:58. Cf. Luke 22:54 . And in John 18:15-16 We read that another disciple followed Christ along with Simon Peter. And this other disciple knew the high priest and was therefore able to get Peter into the gate.
This “other disciple,” is John. He even follows Christ all the way to the cross where he is identified as the “beloved disciple.” See John 19:26. The passage in John 21: 20-24 clarifies that he is none other than John, the author of the fourth Gospel.
Therefore, the word “all” in Mat. 26:56 as well as these other examples allows for exceptions. And so therefore, the word “all” in Romans 3:23 also can allow for exceptions.
4. How Was Mary Saved ?
However, a person might contend that the word “sin” in Romans 3:23 “all have sinned” does not refer to personal sin. For example, for a reference to Jesus see 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” NAB Sin in the first instance refers to “a sin offering” not to “personal sin.”
Another example is found in Romans 5: 12, 19 “Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned … 19 For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.” NAB Here “sinners” is referring to mankind who is in need of redemption and who is subject to original sin. It does not refer to everyone having personal guilt due to each person having personal sin, but rather the penalty of separation for everyone because of Adam’s sin.
So, if “sin” in Romans 3:23 just means the need to be redeemed then Catholics could agree that this verse applies to Mary. Catholics believe that Mary, as a child of Adam, would have contracted Original Sin, but that she was saved from the stain of Original Sin by the merits of Jesus Christ. She was saved from sin and redeemed in a special way from the beginning of her life by the grace of Jesus Christ in an unearned gift to her from God. Genesis 3:15 (and Luke 1: 28) implies that Mary is without sin. The doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception shows how God fulfilled that prophecy.
http://members.aol.com/johnprh/all.html
