Mary and Luke 1:28

[Marcia]

This came from a Catholic site:

After all, what is Divine Mercy? It is God's undeserved, unmerited, often even unsought for divine grace — the grace that our compassionate God pours out upon us to help us overcome our miseries and meet our true needs. Theologians call one form of that mercy God's "prevenient" grace, from the Latin prae-venire, which means "to come before." In other words, even before we ask for it, and quite apart from the fact that we do not deserve it, and have not earned it in the least, God graciously takes the initiative and comes to our aid. Prevenient grace is this completely free gift of God's mercy.

....When you think about it, that is exactly what is on display in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Immaculate Conception is really the supreme manifestation of God's prevenient, unmerited mercy. After all, Mary did not "merit" her Immaculate Conception. Nor could she ask for it. It was something done in her and for her by the Father of Mercy, and solely on the basis of the foreseen merits of His incarnate Son, Jesus Christ.

http://thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3369


Of course, there is no biblical support for this. To me, rather than stretch things to explain how Christ was born of a sinner, it is much more awesome and wonderful to know that God can engineer such a thing for the human incarnation of the Son of God, and that Jesus can be human and God at the same time.

 

[annsni]

Marcia - That's my understanding but honestly, I was saved when I was in Catholic school and I had a lot of hard work contradicting the nuns and priests in religion class. LOL I didn't have to listen overly closely to every detail because I knew it was wrong.

What I have to laugh about is the idea that Jesus could only be sinless by being born to a sinless mother - but Mary could be born sinless to a sinful mother. Weird. Made no sense to me.

 

[Marcia]

Marcia - That's my understanding but honestly, I was saved when I was in Catholic school and I had a lot of hard work contradicting the nuns and priests in religion class. LOL I didn't have to listen overly closely to every detail because I knew it was wrong.

What I have to laugh about is the idea that Jesus could only be sinless by being born to a sinless mother - but Mary could be born sinless to a sinful mother. Weird. Made no sense to me.

Oh, didn't know you were saved while in that school. Thanks for clarifying!

I'm satisfied with the information the Lord has given us on Jesus Christ - it's sufficient. I don't like too much speculation on the how's or why's if it strays off into weird extrabiblical theories or theologies, which some people passionately defend. :wavey:

 

[annsni]

Oh, didn't know you were saved while in that school. Thanks for clarifying!

No - it's funny actually. My family was Catholic and my mom came to the Lord. I came to the Lord a week later when I was 7 years old. I continued in public school for a couple of years but then my mom sent me to Christian school along with my two brothers. When we moved, I couldn't go to that Christian school any longer and the Christian school around the corner from us was SOOOOO legalistic it would make you ill. I didn't want to go to the public school so I chose in 7th grade to go to Catholic school. I continued through 12th grade in Catholic school. So while I was in school from 7th to 12th grades, I was saved and worked hard to contradict everything that was taught wrongly in religion class. I must have been SUCH a pain to those teachers but I did what I felt was right. So just a clarification on the clarification. LOL So I know the basic teaching but lots of it either just clearly didn't make sense and I forgot it or else I knew the overall teaching was wrong and didn't need the nitty gritty details to refute it. :

 

[canadyjd]

We still haven't addressed the question of how Mary could carry a baby sinless when she is herself a sinner.

Doesn't scripture tells us all we really need to know?

Luke 1:35 "And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the Holy Offspring shall be called the Son of God.'"

We don't have to know the details of "how" God did it. It is enough to know that He came upon Mary with the power of Holy Spirit and the result was that sinless God-man was concieved in a sinful woman, and yet no sin passed in the event of the incarnation.

peace to youraying:

 

[Jim1999]

Thank you. I am familiar with scripture. I don't have a problem with an immaculate conception and birth. Some people think it is too Catholic.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[canadyjd]

Thank you. I am familiar with scripture. I don't have a problem with an immaculate conception and birth. Some people think it is too Catholic.

Cheers,

Jim

You don't have a problem with the doctrine that Mary was without sin?

peace to youraying:

 

[annsni]

Again, the "immaculate conception" is a term that is used by the Catholic church to describe MARY'S conception. NOT Jesus'.