True Blessedness of Mary

The Biblical Mary is truly a believer whom all generations should call blessed among women, but she is not above them, and she is not blessed on a par with Christ Jesus Himself. The blessedness of Mary was a demonstration of divine favor toward her, especially in calling her to be the mother of the Lord. This was an act of sovereign choice on God’s part, and prophetically consequential to her lineage in the royal House of David.

She, as a believer, and according to God’s Word to her, conceived and brought forth Christ Jesus the Lord, as a virgin. Later in obedience to the Lord’s Word (recorded infallibly for us in the Gospels), she was wife to Joseph and mother of their children. The contrived tradition of Mary’s “perpetual virginity” is held and promoted by the Roman Church to provide a foundation not only for viewing Mary as a special being in her own right, but also by extension to idolize the celibate state as a means to enter a higher plane of personal sanctity and access to God. Thus it is proclaimed, “The Blessed Mother’s decision to commit herself completely to the Lord in virginity was the beginning and inspiration of consecrated virginity in the Church.”

The unadorned truth is that like all other genuine believers, Mary of Bethlehem was a sinner saved by God’s grace, through faith, not by any essential righteousness or preserving grace granted in her own birth, nor any elevation of virginity within marriage as a higher call than what the Lord has decreed in His Word. In this way she was and is truly blessed among women!