One of the key doctrines that sets apart the Roman Catholic Church (RC) and the Protestant churches is the doctrine of Mary also called Mariology. The RC exalts Mary to the position of a mediator between God and man and pray to her and say, “Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

As Protestants, and more especially as Reformed believers, we are appalled by this prayer. How can one pray through Mary while Christ is the only mediator between God and man as Paul reminds us in 1 Timothy 2:5? But in our reaction to RC’s doctrine of Mary we often tend to go to another unhealthy extreme of ignoring the important and God-given role that Mary played  in the history of our redemption.

We need to guard against this extreme because as we see in the Bible Mary by God’s grace did play an essential role in our redemption. It is through her that the Savior, Jesus Christ, was born in the world. It is of little wonder then that her name is mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed.  Above all, the Scriptures call her “blessed among women” (Luke 2:42, 48).

One thing that will help us guard against the mentioned extreme is to always remember that Mary was chosen by God out of God’s own grace. This is where we the Protestants differ with the RC.  In Luke 1:28-30 we read

And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

The Greek word charis translated favor in this passage means grace. In interpreting these verses the Roman Catholic Church teaches that Mary was the one who had grace. In other words, Mary was the source of grace hence in the “Hail Mary” Prayer, the RC members pray:

“Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee.”

However, this contradicts what Luke 1:28-30 tell us. Mary was the recipient of God’s grace; she was never the source of grace. Mary was not full of grace; God alone is full of grace.

The brief account of Mary which Luke records for us in chapter 1 clearly demonstrates that it was Mary who found grace in the eyes of God. Consider the following three points. First, Mary was a sinner in need of a Savior (Luke 1:46) just like all of us. And the Lord saved her by grace and chose her by the same grace to be the mother of Christ.

Second, Mary was from a very low and humble background. She was not a daughter of a king or a daughter of a rich man. In her song, the Magnificat, recorded for us in Luke 1:46-55 she confesses that she is from a humble estate. In verse 48 she says, “For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.” In verses 52-53 she says, “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.”

Third, Mary was from an obscure town of Nazareth as we read in Luke 1:26 “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth.” Nazareth was neither the capital of Israel nor a big city in Israel. It was a city of little significance humanly speaking. You might remember that when Christ began to call his disciples in  John chapter 1 we read  that one of his first disciples was Phillip.  Later Philip invited his friend, Nathaniel and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And what was the response of Nathaniel? “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

This is what people thought of Nazareth the hometown of Mary. Nothing good can come out of this little-known town. Yet, it is to this obscure city that God went and found a young lady named Mary and said to her, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31).

The story of Mary resembles the story of our salvation in many ways. God chose to save us not because we were a better, richer or more powerful people. He saved us solely out of his sheer grace and mercy as Apostle Paul clearly reminds us  in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29:

²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no human being  might boast in the presence of God.

God’s grace is indeed amazing.  To Him alone be the glory forever!

(This material first appeared in a form of a sermon which was first preached at London Free Reformed Church in London, Ontario, Canada on December 17, 2017).