Mary as All-Holy: Is it Biblical?

samshmn
6 hours ago
9 min read

The teaching of the ancient Churches that Mary was made perfectly holy and kept absolutely pure is based on the necessary conclusion of what the Scriptures teach in respect to the holiness and purity of God.

For instance, the Holy Bible is explicitly clear that nothing unclean and impure can dwell with God:

“If I see wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;” Psalm 66:18

“Behold, the hand of Yahweh is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2

“Then they will cry out to Yahweh, But He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time Because they have practiced evil deeds.” Micah 3:4

“Your eyes are too pure to see evil, And You cannot look on trouble. Why do You look On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?” Habakkuk 1:13

“And I saw no sanctuary in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its sanctuary. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. And the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. And its gates will never be closed by day, for there will be no night there; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. And nothing defiled, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:22-27

The inspired Scriptures also teach that only those who are perfectly holy and righteous can dwell with and remain in God’s presence:

“Now it happened that when Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; Walk before Me and be blameless,’” Genesis 17:1

“You shall be blameless before Yahweh your God.” Deuteronomy 18:13

“O Yahweh, who may sojourn in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy mountain? He who walks blamelessly, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear Yahweh; He swears to his own hurt and does not change; He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken. Read full chapter Psalm 15:1-5

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48

“For I am Yahweh your God. Therefore, set yourselves apart as holy and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that move on the earth. For I am Yahweh who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.’” Leviticus 11:44-45

“but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” 1 Peter 1:15-16

This is why the God promises to make all the faithful absolutely perfect and blameless in order to prevent them from ever sinning again. God does this so that believers can abide in him forever and ever:

“For then I will change them to peoples with purified lips, That all of them may call on the name of Yahweh, To serve Him shoulder to shoulder. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, My scattered ones, Will bring My offerings. In that day you will feel no shame Because of all your deeds By which you have transgressed against Me; For then I will remove from your midst Your proud, exulting ones, And you will never again be haughty On My holy mountain. But I will cause to remain in your midst A lowly and poor people, And they will take refuge in the name of Yahweh. The remnant of Israel will do no injustice And not speak falsehood, Nor will a deceitful tongue Be found in their mouths; For they will feed and lie down With no one to make them tremble.

“Sing for joy, O daughter of Zion! Make a loud shout, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! Yahweh has taken away His judgments against you; He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, Yahweh, is in your midst; You will fear evil no more. In that day it will be said to Jerusalem: ‘Do not fear, O Zion; Do not let your hands fall limp. Yahweh your God is in your midst, A mighty one who will save. He will be joyful over you with gladness; He will be quiet in His love; He will rejoice over you with joyful singing.’” Zephaniah 3:9-17

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.” Hebrews 12:22-24

“See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we would be called children of God; and we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not been manifested as yet what we will be. We know that when He is manifested, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone who does sin also does lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or has come to know Him.

“Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. The one who does sin is of the devil, because the devil sins from the beginning. The Son of God was manifested for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested: everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, as well as the one who does not love his brother.” 1 John 3:1-10

This next example is most interesting:

“just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously (echaritosen) bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:4-7

The verb “graciously” is used only one other time, namely, in relation to Gabriel’s annunciation to the holy mother:

“But in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, whose name was Nazareth [to which the name Nazareth], to a maiden [to a virgin], wedded to a man, whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the name of the maiden was Mary. And the angel entered to her, and said, Hail, full of grace (kecharitomene); the Lord is with thee; blessed be thou among women. And when she had heard, she was troubled in his word, and thought what manner salutation this was.

“And the angel said to her, Dread thou not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Lo! thou shalt conceive in [the] womb, and shalt bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. 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, 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.

“And Mary said to the angel, On what manner shall this thing be done, for I know not man? 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.” Luke 1:26-35 Wycliffe (WYC)

Note that this is the grace that results in God making someone completely blameless and holy. The implication here is that God did in advance for the Holy Mother what he shall eventually do for all the rest of the believers, i.e., the faithful like the blessed Mother will become perfectly righteous and immutably sinless.

Hence, the teaching that Mary was made and kept perfectly holy is not contrary to Scriptures. On the contrary, it is the necessary outflow of what the Holy Bible teaches concerning the nature of God’s immutable holiness and purity, which demands for a person to be absolutely pure in order to dwell in his presence.

How much more would this apply to the Holy Mother who had been given the privilege of carrying God Almighty in all the fullness of his Divinity and glory, and from whom Christ received the very flesh and blood which he needed to save creation from sin?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people...

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him...

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.”’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son, himself God, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” John 1:1-4, 9-10, 14-18 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE)

“He rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us away into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom our release is secured and our sins forgiven. He is the image of the invisible God; his is the primacy over all created things. In him everything in heaven and on earth was created, not only things visible but also the invisible orders of thrones, sovereignties, authorities, and powers: the whole universe has been created through him and for him. And he exists before everything, and all things are held together in him. He is, moreover, the head of the body, the church. He is its origin, the first to return from the dead, to be in all things alone supreme. For in him the complete being of God, by God's own choice, came to dwell. Through him God chose to reconcile the whole universe to himself, making peace through the shedding of his blood upon the cross—to reconcile all things, whether on earth or in heaven, through him alone.” Colossians 1:13-20 New English Bible (NEB)