Our Catholic friends think so ... evidently.
They often pray the Hail Mary prayer which contains the words, "Holy Mary, mother of God pray for us sinners ...." So, was Mary the "mother of God"? The Holy Spirit, speaking through Elizabeth, wife of priest Zacharias, in Luke 1:42, did not tell Mary, "Blessed art thou above women", but, "Blessed art thou among women", which makes her, simply a good woman among women.
Five verses later Sweet Mary, herself, acknowledged God as her Lord and Savior. She was not the mother of "God" but of the fleshly body of Jesus in which the Spirit of Christ (Messiah) God chose to dwell in for 33 short years, as one of us.. Her baby, Jesus, was fully human and His Spirit was fully God. It was Jesus the human who was born of Mary not God, the Christ who already existed in heaven.
The boy, Jesus, questioned Mary, His mother, and Joseph, her husband, "Don't you know I must be about my Father's business?" Luke 2:49. And he wasn't speaking of Joseph, but of God the Father.
Jesus, the Christ, revealed the truth of His eternal relationship to Mary and His half brothers in Matt. 12:46-50.
"While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."
Those words of Jesus were a thunderous truth that every Christian's most important relationship in eternity, including Mary and her other sons. This truth is that God is our Father and all we Christians are brothers and sisters in the family of God. And we are there as the born again Bride of Christ who has become what I see as the fourth member of the heavenly family.
"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." Rom.8:17.
Jesus even mildly corrected his earthly mother, who had raised Him as her son, when she hinted to him to perform a miracle for some wine, at a wedding. To which He answered her, by addressing her, not as "Mother" but as "Woman, what have I do do with thee". But then performed the trivial request of turning water into wine. (John 2:3-5).
So, was Mary the mother of God? No, she was God's chosen woman, "among women", to give birth to the human body in which he would dwell, move about, teach, perform miracles and then give that body a sacrifice for our sins. Then, while Jesus' body lay in the tomb, the Spirit of Christ went into the heart of the earth to give the gospel to the Old Testament saints awaiting their Messiah's redemption. Then He re-enter His Jesus body, arose in it from its death, glorified, and resurrect those O.T. saints from the dead and lead them ... "captivity captive" into heaven..
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." 1 Peter 3:18-19.
"Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) Eph. 4:8-10
No comments:
Post a Comment