catholicsphere

Protestants and anti-Catholics sometimes use Romans 3:23 to prove that Mary sinned. Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

A few years back, I was having a discussion about Mary where someone raised this very argument. Here was my reply:

Rom 3:23 doesn’t cover it, and here’s why….

Does “ALL mean ‘all’”?

If so, then this means Jesus Christ sinned. HOWEVER, we have a verse that tells us that He was without sin - so, we can see that He was an exception.

By the same token, if “all means all”, then we must say that infants/children below “the age of reason” have sinned. Of course, we have no verse that tells us that they are exempted from the application of this verse - so, we should assume [by the logic presented by my opponent] that these also have sinned…..and thus “fall short of the glory of God”; meaning they can’t enter heaven if they die before being “born again”. [NOTE: I'm not speaking of Catholic doctrine on the issue of infants who die before being "born again", but rather presenting the logical conclusion of the citation of Rom 3:23 as meaning that Mary sinned because "all" sinned.]

Did Paul sin? Philippians 3:6 tells us that he was “blameless” in regard to “righteousness under the law”…that he kept it perfectly. Is this our “exception verse” for Paul? [Personally, I don't think so...but, in light of the interpretational approach my opponent took, it could be taken that way]

But, let’s take a closer look at Rom 3:23; Paul is using what can be termed a “focused” view, instead of a “factual” view that he presents elsewhere. Paul’s whole point in context is to show the inability of the law to save anyone. That the law gives commands, but no strength to keep them - apart from that strength, which is grace, not one person could keep even 1 command. But, some used that grace for faith, and thus kept the law [even though, perhaps, imperfectly] (THAT is the factual picture, because we know that there were some who were righteous even before Christ - not by the law and their own natural ability, but by the grace of God in them, “to will and to do for his good pleasure” [Phil 2:13].)

So, then, given that Rom 3:23 does not apply to all - meaning every person ever born (and that we must be wary in how we interpret Paul’s meaning here) - how are we to understand Mary’s need of a Savior? In this way….every human person who ever attained to heaven did so ONLY by the sacrifice of Christ from the beginning of time - even those who lived and died before Christ entered human history. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (which states that Mary was born without original sin [being the pure "ark" of the New Covenant, the New Covenant which was Jesus] and remained sinless throughout her life because of the grace of God given to her; which Luke 1:28 tells us was “perfect grace” in the Greek term “kecharitome”) states that the grace given to Mary was given and made available, only because of the sacrifice of Christ, and that this was a gift of God to the Mother of God Incarnate, so that it can truly be said that He was also her Savior, but in a way that anticipated Christ’s coming. We know that God cannot dwell in sin, therefore, can we say that God dwelt in sin for 9 months in Mary’s womb? No…so therefore, the dwelling place of God Incarnate, Christ Jesus, must have been without sin.

All this is sufficient to blow major holes in the statement that was made about Mary’s sinlessness being a fabrication. All should notice how I have presented the position as well….focusing on Christ Jesus and God, and drawing conclusions from our knowledge of Him….based on the written word of God - rather than focusing on any special “powers” that Mary had. Study this post and you should see that such is evident.

[tags]Mary, sinlessness, gospel, Jesus, Christ, Catholic, Christian, Protestant, anti-Catholic, apologetics, salvation, doctrine, Immaculate Conception, Romans, Bible, Scripture[/tags]