Scripture isn't silent on it since from Adam we have all inherited a sin nature.
Do you believe our sin nature just vanishes when we become born again or do you believe it is put under submission?
I believe in the second.
I just don't find it difficult to believe that Mary was not born with our sin nature.
I believe God chose her and prepared her.
But I'm repeating because I don't know how we could be certain of this...
I believe God is omniscient and knows all things in and out of time.
I agree with this.
He also knew who would come to believe and be saved...
not that God chose who would be saved.
What is predestined are other conditions - but that's a different thread...
Does that mean Mary's mother was also immaculately conceived (without sin)...ad infinitum back to Eve?
LOL
I knew you'd say this.
In the theory of the Immaculate Conception, Mary was miraculously freed from the sin nature at the moment of her conception.
This is why I say that God CHOSE her...This would have to be necessarily true IF she was born free of the sin nature.
So, it would not have to go back to her mother and all the way back to Eve.
Catholics are not dumb...they just have their own beliefs - and reasons for them.
(I'm not saying you stated that they're dumb...I'm stating that they are not).
Taken from the 'horse's mouth'...
Infused grace is a term often used by Catholic theologians to describe in metaphorical terms how God “pours” grace into our souls or, to put it another way, “fills” us with his grace. The word “infused” denotes the idea of something being “poured into” and is seen most commonly in the Latin formula
gratia infusia. This language is symbolic, of course, but it is certainly biblical. Some Protestant critics of the Catholic Church criticize the concept of infused grace as being “unbiblical,” but as the following verses show, the concept is completely biblical.
Infused grace is a term often used by Catholic theologians to describe in metaphorical terms how God “pours” grace into our souls or, to put it anot...
www.catholic.com
We are infused with the Holy Spirit upon faith, but not before then. (After all I'm not Reformed lol).
OK.
This is the meaning of infused grace as understood in the CC.
If you read carefully what it states....the "pouring into"...Isn't this what happens to us?
The Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us....
We are given more and more grace, as we use what we already have.
IOW,,,if we use the grace God gives to us...He will give us more.
If we obey Him...He will give us all the grace we need so that we can obey Him even more.
Doesn't this sound like infused grace to you?
Instead...
Romans 5:1-2 (NASB) Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
Amen.
Yes,,,,everything we have is because of God's grace.