Mary is Sinless!

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Three important reasons the Immaculate Conception is (((ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED)))
for “our salvation” to become Man and accomplish the redemption!
(our salvation is our savior Jesus Christ Lk 2:30)


No one worthy:
Sacrifice:
Holiness:

((No one worthy))

All mankind is in a state of enmity with God, under a curse & children of wrath, disobedient, separated from God, & devoid of grace, “the life of God”!

Satan desired the fall of man to accomplish this very thing, that none of mankind could ever by nature be worthy of receiving the incarnate Word: “our salvation” (Jesus Christ)

God made Mary worthy by the grace of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in virtue of the future merits of Christ!


((Propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ))

The high priest Jesus Christ offers Himself as the victim on the cross and obtains the atonement, redemption, and salvation!

The victim must be pure, sinless, & holy to be acceptable. The eternal Word took flesh and blood of the sinless virgin Mary!

Jn 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

This is the blood of the new and eternal testament, her blood becomes “my blood of the new & eternal testament.

Sinless Mary clothed the eternal Word with human flesh & blood.

It is the flesh & blood that He took of the virgin that is crucified for our redemption & salvation!

That accomplished the atonement!

Christ could not assume flesh & blood from a sinner to obtain the salvation of all men!


((Holiness of God))

Daughter of the Eternal Father:
Mother of the Word:
Spouse of the Holy Spirit:

Requires Mary to be holy, pure, & immaculate!

(Ex 25 Anything consecrated to God for His purposes must be pure, holy, and dedicated only to God’s service)

Lk 1:30-35

30 And the angel said to her, Dread thou not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.

31 Lo! thou shalt conceive in [the] womb, and shalt bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus.

32 This shall be great [He shall be great], and he shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give to him the seat of David, his father,

33 and he shall reign in the house of Jacob without end [and he shall reign in the house of Jacob into without end], and of his realm shall be none end.

34 And Mary said to the angel, On what manner shall this thing be done, for I know not man?

35 And the angel answered, and said to her, The Holy Ghost shall come from above into thee, and the virtue of the Highest shall overshadow thee; and therefore that holy thing that shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.

The Holy Spirit of God could not conceive the Holy Son of God in a sinner!

Immaculate Conception is (((ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED)))
for “our salvation” to become Man and accomplish the redemption! Amen!

And

((You oppose the Word of God!))

Scripture says: “holiness befits thy house, O Lord” (Ps 93:5). Mary was Jesus’ “house” for 9 months so if holiness befits God’s house would not Mary be holy also? Just like the Ark and the Tabernacle she was set apart and consecrated to the Lord., the holy dwelling of God.

1 cor 3:17 …..for the temple of God is holy….. Mary is the temple, house, dwelling of God, God had need of Her to become man!

Jesus was conceived pure and immaculate because Mary was pure and immaculate. As Job said “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.” (Job 14:4).

Mary is the new covenant, the new Ark of the covenant, the new temple, the free woman (gen 3:15 who’s offspring is Christ according to the flesh, and the mystical body of Christ according to the Spirit) the new Jerusalem! (Gal 4:26)

Song of Solomon 4:1 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.

Rev 12:1 a woman clothed with the sun.
(Immaculate purity)


And you are most inconsistent in applying the same absolute standard to all verses of scripture!
Christ needed sinless human flesh to take on.

Mary's sinlessness shows the dignity of her son, Jesus, who is God incarnate.

To become the mother of the Savior, Mary “was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.” The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as “full of grace.” (Lk 1:28) found grace (Lk 1:30) In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God’s grace, consented to “our salvation” Lk 1:38 all generations (Christians) call me blessed. Lk 1:48

Jude 1:24, which says that God is able to "keep you from stumbling and to present you “blameless”!

 

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Christ’s witnesses! Acts1:8


((Third Century Witnesses!))

“She (Mary) was the ark formed of incorruptible wood. For by this is signified that His (Jesus) tabernacle was exempt from putridity and corruption.”
– Hippolytus, Orations In illud, Dominus pascit me (ante A.D. 235).

(The Ark of the covenant was a type of Mary, incorruptible wood refers to Her immaculate conception in grace Lk 1:49, covered with pure gold Her great charity or love of God, into the Ark was the mana, the Ten Commandments & Torah, Aaron’s rod, in Mary the new Ark was Christ the living mana come down from heaven, Christ the fulfillment of the law and the eternal Word of God, Christ the high priest)

“This Virgin Mother of the Only Begotten of God, is called Mary, worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, one of the one.” – Origen, Homily 1(A.D. 244).


((Fourth Century Witnesses))

“Let woman praise Her, the pure Mary.” St. Ephraim, Hymns on the Nativity, 15:23 (A.D. 370). Song of Solomon 1:3

“Thou alone and thy Mother are in all things fair, there is no flaw in thee and no stain in thy Mother.”
St. Ephraem, Nisibene Hymns, 27:8 (A.D. 370). (Song of Solomon 2:1-2 & 4:7)

“O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides.”
-Athanasius, Homily of the Papyrus of Turin, 71:216 (ante AD 373).
(Mary is the new covenant, new Jerusalem, (gal 4:26) the free woman who’s offspring (gen 3:15) is Christ and the mystical body of Christ)

[In the above quote by Saint Athanasius, the defender of the divinity of Christ, we find him identifying Mary with the gilded Ark of the Covenant. Moreover, he is praying to her.]

“Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin.”
– Ambrose, Sermon 22:30 (A.D. 388). (Perpetual Virgin)


((Fifth Century Witnesses))

“We must except the Holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin.”
– Augustine, Nature and Grace, 42 [36] (A.D. 415).

“As he formed her without my stain of her own, so He proceeded from her contracting no stain.”
– Proclus of Constantinople, Homily 1 (ante A.D. 446).

[The quote above by Proclus demonstrates that the primative Eastern Church did already articulate sin in term of a transmitted and contracted “stain.” Contemporary Eastern Orthodox dismissals of “the stain of original sin” is disingenuous.]

“A virgin, innocent, spotless, free of all defect, untouched, unsullied, holy in soul and body, like a lily sprouting among thorns.”
– Theodotus of Ancrya, Homily VI:11 (ante A.D. 446).

“The angel took not the Virgin from Joseph, but gave her to Christ, to whom she was pledged from Joseph, but gave her to Christ, to whom she was pledged in the womb, when she was made.”
– Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 140 (A.D. 449).


((Sixth Century Witnesses))

“The very fact that God has elected her proves that none was ever holier than Mary, if any stain had disfigured her soul, if any other virgin had been purer and holier, God would have selected her and rejected Mary.”
– Jacob of Sarug (ante A.D. 521).


((Seven - Ninth Century Witnesses))

“She is born like the cherubim, she who is of a pure, immaculate clay.”
– Theotokos of Livias, Panegyric for the feast of the Dormition of Mary, 5:6 (ante A.D. 650).

“Today humanity, in all the radiance of her immaculate nobility, receives its ancient beauty. The shame of sin had darkened the splendour and attraction of human nature; but when the Mother of the Fair One par excellence is born, this nature regains in her person its ancient privileges and is fashioned according to a perfect model truly worthy of God…. The reform of our nature begins today and the aged world, subjected to a wholly divine transformation, receives the first fruits of the second creation.”
– Andrew of Crete, Sermon I, On the Birth of Mary (A.D. 733).

“Truly elect, and superior to all, not by the altitude of lofty structures, but as excelling all in the greatness and purity of sublime and divine virtues, and having no affinity with sin whatever.”
– Germanus of Constantinople, Marracci in S. Germani Mariali (ante A.D. 733).

“O most blessed loins of Joachim from which came forth a spotless seed! O glorious womb of Anne in which a most holy offspring grew.” John Damascene, Homily I (ante A.D. 749).


((More witnesses))

St. Athanasius

. . . pure and unstained Virgin . . . (On the Incarnation of the Word, 8; Gambero, 102)

O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides. (Homily of the Papyrus of Turin, 71, 216; Gambero, 106)

St. Ephraem

Mary and Eve, two people without guilt, two simple people, were identical. Later, however, one became the cause of our death, the other the cause of our life (Op. syr. II, 327; Ott, 201)

The Virgin Mary is a symbol of the Church, when she receives the first announcement of the gospel . . . We call the Church by the name of Mary, for she deserves a double name. (Sermo ad noct. Resurr.; Gambero, 115)

Thou and thy mother are the only ones who are totally beautiful in every respect; for in thee, O Lord, there is no spot, and in thy Mother no stain. (Nisibene Hymns, 27, v. 8; Ott, 201)

[W]e find Ephraem delineating her as free from every stain, like her son.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Pure and spotless is this birth. For where the Holy Spirit breathes, all pollution is taken away, so that the human birth of the Only-begotten from the Virgin is undefiled. (Catechetical Lectures, XII, 31-32; Gambero, 140)

St. Gregory Nazianzen

He was conceived by the Virgin, who had first been purified by the Spirit in soul and body; for, as it was fitting that childbearing should receive its share of honor, so it was necessary that virginity should receive even greater honor. (Sermon 38, 13; Gambero, 162-163)

St. Gregory of Nyssa

It was, to divulge by the manner of His Incarnation this great secret; that purity is the only complete indication of the presence of God and of His coming, and that no one can in reality secure this for himself, unless he has altogether estranged himself from the passions of the flesh. What happened in the stainless Mary when the fulness of the Godhead which was in Christ shone out through her, that happens in every soul that leads by rule the virgin life. (On Virginity, 2; NPNF 2, Vol. V, 344)

T]he power of the Most High, through the Holy Spirit, overshadowed the human nature and was formed therein; that is to say, the portion of flesh was formed in the immaculate Virgin. (Against Apollinaris, 6; Gambero, 153)

 

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St. Ambrose

. . . Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin. (Commentary on Psalm 118, 22, 30; Jurgens, II, 166)

What is greater than the Mother of God? What more glorious than she whom Glory Itself chose? What more chaste than she who bore a body without contact with another body? (Virginity, II, 6; NPNF 2, Vol. X, 374)

St. Epiphanius

Mary, the holy Virgin, is truly great before God and men. For how shall we not proclaim her great, who held within her the uncontainable One, whom neither heaven nor earth can contain? (Panarion, 30, 31; Gambero, 127)

St. Jerome

‘There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall grow out of his roots.’ The rod is the mother of the Lord–simple, pure, unsullied; drawing no germ of life from without but fruitful in singleness like God Himself… Set before you the blessed Mary, whose surpassing purity made her meet to be the mother of the Lord. (Letter XXII. To Eustochium, 19, 38; NPNF 2, Vol. VI, 29, 39; cf. Gambero, p. 213: “whose purity was so great that she merited to be the Mother of the Lord”)

Indeed how inferior they are, in terms of holiness, to blessed Mary, Mother of the Lord! (Contra Pelagianos, 1, 16; Gambero, 212)


St. Augustine

We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin. Well, then, if, with this exception of the Virgin, we could only assemble together all the forementioned holy men and women, and ask them whether they lived without sin whilst they were in this life, what can we suppose would be their answer? (A Treatise on Nature and Grace, chapter 42 [XXXVI]; NPNF 1, Vol. V)

Augustine went a step farther. In an incidental remark against Pelagius, he agreed with him in excepting Mary, “propter honorem Domini,” from actual (but not from original) sin. This exception he is willing to make from the sinfulness of the race, but no other. He taught the sinless birth and life of Mary, but not her immaculate conception. . . . The reasoning of Augustine backward from the holiness of Christ to the holiness of His mother was an important turn, which was afterward pursued to further results. The same reasoning leads as easily to the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary, though also, just as well, to a sinless mother of Mary herself, and thus upward to the beginning, of the race, to another Eve who never fell.

(Schaff, HCC 3, 418-419)

We do not deliver Mary to the devil by the condition of her birth; but for this reason, because this very condition is resolved by the grace of rebirth. (Opus Imperf. Contra Julianum, 4, 122; Graef, 99)

And so he created a Virgin, whom he had chosen to be his Mother . . . she, with pious faith, merited to receive the holy seed within her. He chose her, to be created from her. (De peccatorum meritis et remissione, 2, 24, 38; Gambero, 219)

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Hail, Mary Theotokos, Virgin-Mother, lightbearer, uncorrupt vessel . . . Hail Mary, you are the most precious creature in the whole world; hail, Mary, uncorrupt dove; hail, Mary, inextinguishable lamp; for from you was born the Sun of justice . . . Through you, every faithful soul achieves salvation. (Homily 11 at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus; Gambero, 243, 245)

A virgin, innocent, spotless, free of all defect, untouched, unsullied, holy in soul and body, like a lily sprouting among thorns. (Homily VI, 11; O’Carroll, 339)

If iron, once joined to fire, immediately expels the impurities extraneous to its nature and swiftly acquires a likeness to the powerful flame that heats it, . . . how much more, in a superior way, did the Virgin burn when the divine fire (the Holy Spirit) rushed in? She was purified from earthly impurities, and from whatever might be against her nature, and was restored to her original beauty, so as to become inaccessible, untouchable, and irreconcilable to carnal things. (Homily 4, 6; Gambero, 264)

Innocent virgin, spotless, without defect, untouched, unstained, holy in body and in soul, like a lily-flower sprung among thorns, unschooled in the wickedness of Eve . . . clothed with divine grace as with a cloak . . . (Homily 6, 11; Gambero, 268)

St. John Damascene

O most blessed loins of Joachim from which came forth a spotless seed! O glorious womb of Anne in which a most holy offspring grew. (Homily I on the Nativity of Mary; O’Carroll, 200; cf. Graef, 154; Gambero, 402)

She is all beautiful, all near to God. For she, surpassing the cherubim, exalted beyond the seraphim, is placed near to God. (Homily on the Nativity, 9; Gambero, 403)