The Virgin Mary: A Sinner Too

December 9th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Luke 1:28 [Gabriel] said to [Mary], “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

The Latin Vulgate reads, “Hail Mary, full of grace” and is used by Roman Catholics to prove that Mary was immaculately conceived—that she was born without original sin. In 1854 Pope Pius IX said, “The Most Holy Virgin Mary was in the first moment of her conception, by a unique gift of grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of mankind, preserved free from all stain of original sin” (Bull “Ineffabilis”). This proclamation was believed to be infallible and thus to be received by all Catholics. Ludwig Ott, a modern Catholic theologian, has argued that Luke 1:28 reveals Mary’s proper name (Gr. charitos) which represents her characteristic quality of being “full of grace.” Ott says, “It is perfect only if it be perfect not only intensively but also extensively, that is, if it extends over her whole life, beginning with her entry into the world.” So, Mary, like God, was without sin.

Notably, the Apostle Paul uses the same term the angel used for Mary for all believers in Ephesians 1:6, noting that all have sinned (Rom. 3:23). So all believers have had grace bestowed upon them which is what the Greek term translated “favored one” (Lat. “full of grace”) means. There can thus be no true doctrine of the immaculate conception. It is a false doctrine, a heresy.

Assuming for a moment that “favored one” did reflect Mary’s essential character at the time of the angelic visit, it is entirely unfounded to take that all the way back to her birth. Why not simply say that God’s grace was on Mary’s life from the time of her conception? After all, this was true of Jeremiah (1:5) and John the Baptist (Luke 1:15), yet there is no Catholic doctrine of their immaculate conception. Truth is, the Bible never teaches that Mary was immaculately conceived and thus without sin, yet Catholics use man-made traditions to fill in the areas where Scripture is silent. One wonders why Catholics use Scripture at all since their traditions always trump biblical doctrine, even an idea added in 1854, centuries after the canon was closed.

Ludwig Ott reflects Catholic dogma in his belief that Mary’s perfection stems from her being full of grace. He believes that personal moral defects are irreconcilable with her title. Yet the root problem with Ott’s belief, and all other Catholics, is the Latin Vulgate translation which is not even reflected in the modern Catholic New American Bible (NAB) which rightly calls Mary “favored one.” All Gabriel was doing was noting how fortunate Mary was at that moment to be the recipient of such wonderful news. It was the good news that lumped Mary in with all other believers (cf. Eph. 1:6) in Christ that kept her among the “favored ones.” Mary was simply graced both in time and function as the bearer of the Christ-child. Just as there is nothing in the Bible that teaches God’s “favored ones” never sin, neither is there anything in Luke’s account, or anywhere else in Scripture, that teaches that grace upon Mary prevented her from ever sinning.

Strangely, Ott admits, “[Mary] herself required redemption and was redeemed by Christ.” This in itself admits that Mary was a sinner in need of redemption. Even Mary said as much when she confessed, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46). Now since saviors are needed only for those in need of saving, Mary’s confession of her need of a Savior points to her sinfulness—like all other humans, for “there is none who does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:12), and “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Indeed, if Mary truly thought herself to be sinless, having been immaculately conceived, one wonders why she presented an offering to the Jewish priest reflecting her sinful condition (Luke 2:22)—required of all sinners (Lev. 12:2). Certainly she would have refrained from such if in fact she was sinless.

Truly, Mary was “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42), but even Thomas Aquinas said that the immaculate conception of Mary was impossible (Summa Theologica 3, 27, 2) since she, like all other humans except Christ, inherited a sin nature from Adam (cf. Rom. 5:12).

Food For Thought
The virgin Mary was a favored person indeed, for she bore the Christ-child. But she, like all of us, was born into this sinful world by sinful parents who were ultimately affected by Adam and Eve’s original sin. If she had been sinless, there would have been no need for Jesus of Nazareth, for Mary could have been the perfect lamb of God herself. But since she too was a sinner, God had to become flesh in order to live and die as the Lamb of God—perfect and without blemish, able to appease the wrath of God the Father and grant man an avenue for salvation. Through Jesus, therefore, not Mary, man is saved from his sins. Mary merely gave Him birth in flesh. She is therefore to be honored as one of God’s favored ones.