What Is the “Immaculate Conception”?

It’s that time of year again where we break open our dusty boxes of Christmas decorations and Christmas recipes! (today I’m making Mississippi Pot Roast, the best pot roast I’ve ever had and first experienced at South Union Camp Meeting in Ackerman, Mississippi! And special greetings to Buddy & Carol Smith, Mary Grace and Eric Chambers, and the WHOLE family at South Union!)

Ornaments and recipes aren’t the only things that come around this time of year, but also age-old questions surrounding Christian tradition, doctrine, and advent.

One question that came to me just today was about the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which—as you’ll find in detail below—was formulated by the Roman Catholic Church as a means for understanding how Jesus can be fully human, yet not have inherited a sinful nature/condition from his mother Mary (another way of putting it would be “how did Jesus not inherit Original Sin?” However, I’m not employing the term “Original Sin” because not all Christian traditions affirm the doctrine of Original Sin (see Chapter 4 of Thomas H. McCall’s, Against God and Nature for details)).

So, what is the “immaculate conception”? The Immaculate Conception is a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that teaches that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived without original sin. This belief holds that from the very first moment of her existence, Mary was preserved by God’s grace from the inherited sinfulness that affects all humanity due to the fall of Adam and Eve.

Key Aspects of the Doctrine

1. Definition: The Immaculate Conception was formally defined as a dogma by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854, in the papal document Ineffabilis Deus. The doctrine states: “The Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”
2. Focus on Mary’s Conception: It’s important to clarify that the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary’s conception in her mother’s womb, not to Jesus’ conception in Mary’s womb (which is the Virgin Birth).
3. Grace Through Jesus: The Roman Catholic Church emphasizes that Mary’s freedom from original sin was made possible by the merits of Jesus Christ’s future redemptive work. She was “pre-redeemed” or saved in advance by God’s grace because of her unique role as the mother of the Savior.
4. Her Role as Theotokos (God-bearer): The Immaculate Conception reflects the Church’s understanding that Mary, as the mother of Jesus, needed to be a pure and sinless vessel to bear the Son of God.

Biblical and Theological Foundations

Though the doctrine is not explicitly stated in Scripture, Roman Catholics point to certain biblical passages and centuries of theological reflection (see below for the weakness of the biblical support of the immaculate conception):

• Luke 1:28 – The angel Gabriel greets Mary as “full of grace” (kecharitomene in Greek), a term that indicates her unique holiness and favor with God.
• Genesis 3:15 – The “Protoevangelium” or first gospel speaks of enmity between the serpent (Satan) and the woman, and between her offspring and the serpent’s offspring. This is seen as a prophecy of Mary and her unique role in salvation history.

Historical Development

1. Early Church: From the earliest centuries, Christians venerated Mary as sinless and uniquely holy. Church Fathers such as St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and St. Ephrem of Syria praised her purity, though the exact nature of her sinlessness was not fully defined.
2. Medieval Theology: During the Middle Ages, theologians debated how Mary could be sinless while still needing redemption. The Franciscan theologian Blessed John Duns Scotus provided a key explanation: Mary was redeemed by Christ preemptively, meaning she was preserved from sin through His future merits.
3. Declaration as Dogma: After centuries of devotion and theological development, Pope Pius IX defined the Immaculate Conception as a dogma in 1854, making it an essential belief for Catholics.

Common Misunderstandings

• Not About Jesus: The Immaculate Conception refers to Mary, not Jesus.
• Not About Mary’s Virginity: It does not refer to Mary conceiving Jesus as a virgin; that is the doctrine of the Virgin Birth.

Why It Matters

The Immaculate Conception highlights:

• God’s Grace: Mary’s sinlessness was not her own achievement but a gift of grace from God.
• Jesus’ Holiness: It underscores the unique preparation God made for Jesus’ arrival into the world.
• Mary’s Role: It emphasizes Mary’s special role in salvation history as the mother of the Savior and as an example of faith and obedience to God.

Weakness of the Immaculate Conception and the Basis of Protestant Rejection

Protestants (and I, for one) generally reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception on theological, biblical, and historical grounds. Here are the key reasons:

1. Lack of Explicit Biblical Support

Protestants emphasize sola scriptura (Scripture alone) as the basis for doctrine. Since the Bible does not explicitly state that Mary was conceived without original sin, most Protestants see the doctrine as lacking a biblical foundation.

• Luke 1:28 (“Full of Grace”): While Catholics interpret this as evidence of Mary’s sinlessness, Protestants typically argue that the Greek term kecharitomene means “highly favored” rather than indicating freedom from sin. We view Mary’s favor with God as evidence of His grace, not an indication of her being preserved from original sin.
• Romans 3:23: Protestants often cite this verse—“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”—to argue that no human, including Mary, is exempt from sin!

2. Emphasis on Christ Alone as Sinless

We Protestants focus on Jesus as the sole sinless one and Savior. We argue that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception could detract from Jesus’ unique role as the Redeemer by suggesting that Mary was sinless and did not require redemption in the same way as other humans. We find that the Roman Catholic rebuttal that Mary is pure preemptively on the basis of Christ’s redeeming work is not only not biblical, but not necessary!

3. Mary’s Need for a Savior:

We Protestants highlight Luke 1:47, where Mary says, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior,” as evidence that she saw herself as a sinner in need of salvation. They interpret this as incompatible with the Catholic view that Mary was “pre-redeemed” and preserved from sin (this is the “mic-drop” verse for Protestants against the doctrine of the immaculate conception).

3. Concerns About Tradition vs. Scripture

Protestants often reject the doctrine because it is rooted in Church tradition rather than direct biblical teaching. They argue that doctrines like the Immaculate Conception arose over centuries and reflect theological speculation rather than divine revelation. The doctrine was only formally defined as dogma by Pope Pius IX in 1854, which Protestants see as evidence of its later development rather than apostolic origin.

4. Original Sin Defined Differently

Protestants and Catholics sometimes understand original sin differently. The Protestant view is that Original sin is the inherited guilt and corruption of human nature due to Adam’s fall. Protestants argue that all humans—including Mary—are born with this condition and require redemption through Christ.

Roman Catholics believe Mary was preserved from original sin through the merits of Christ, not by her own nature. Protestants reject this reasoning, as they see it as unnecessary speculation beyond what Scripture teaches.

5. Rejection of Mary’s Elevated Role

Protestants tend to view Mary as a faithful servant of God but not as someone with an exalted, sinless status. They believe doctrines like the Immaculate Conception elevate Mary beyond her biblical role. Protestants affirm Mary’s unique role as the mother of Jesus but are cautious about granting her attributes, like sinlessness, that they believe belong solely to Christ.

Protestant Alternatives to the Immaculate Conception

While rejecting the Immaculate Conception, Protestants still honor Mary as the mother of Jesus and uphold that Jesus did not inherit original guilt (because if he did, he would have needed to atone for his own sins, which would disqualify him as the one who atones for the sins of the world).

Mary’s Holiness Through Grace: Protestants acknowledge that Mary was chosen by God for her faith and obedience. They view her as a model of faith but believe her holiness resulted from God’s grace, not from being preserved from sin at conception.

Jesus’ Sinlessness: Protestants emphasize that Jesus’ sinlessness was not dependent on Mary being sinless but on His divine nature and miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

For Protestants, the rejection of the Immaculate Conception reflects a commitment to the authority of Scripture and a focus on Christ as the sole sinless Savior. While Protestants honor Mary’s role in God’s plan, they believe that attributing sinlessness to her is unnecessary and unbiblical, as it detracts from the unique redemptive work of Christ.

That being said, I regularly promote that all Christians are unified in the essentials of Christian Doctrine, but permit doctrinal freedom in the non-essentials. Is the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception essential? I would argue NO. However, the essential doctrine of the sinless of Christ is directly connected to this doctrine. To uphold the apostolic witness to Christ, we must maintain that Jesus was sinless (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22, 1 John 3:5; John 8:46) however, the immaculate conception is not necessary to uphold the sinlessness of Christ.

While there are various Protestant proposals on how Christ inherits the human nature from Mary without sin, the explanation that I find most compelling is that as Jesus at the moment Jesus took on Mary’s sinful human nature, he healed/redeemed it. Jesus heals/redeems that with which he comes into contact. Furthermore, on the basis of Gregory Nazianzus’ logic, Christ only redeems that which he assumes. If he did NOT assume the sinful human nature from Mary, than he cannot redeem it. One could argue, then, that the immaculate conception would deny Jesus’s assumption of the sinful human condition if Mary was immaculately conceived. For details on this view, see Jerome Van Kuiken, “Torrance and Christ’s Assumption of Fallen Human Nature: Toward Clarification and Closure,” in Thomas F. Torrance and Evangelical T theology: A Critical Analysis, ed. Mya Habets and R. Lucas Stamps, Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology (Birmingham, WA: Lexam Academic, 2023).

See the following for more reading on this topic:

• Oliver Crisp, Was Christ Tempted in Every Way? in Christianity Today.
• Stephen J. Wellum, God the Son Incarnate: The Doctrine of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016), 232–235.
• Thomas Oden, The Word of Life: Systematic Theology, Vol. II (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), 133.
• Thomas Torrance, Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ, ed. Robert T. Walker (Downers Grove: IVP Academic 2008), 94–104.