A NEW LOOK AT MARY’S SINLESSNESS

Old Testament laws concerning clean and unclean were typical of New Testament truths concerning saved and lost.

According to Haggai 2:12-13, if that which is clean touches that which is unclean, the unclean is not made clean; rather, the clean is made unclean.

If one that is unclean touch someone who is clean, the clean becomes unclean.

We have in the New Testament (Luke 8:34ff) the story of a woman who had an issue of blood, and was therefore unclean. She came and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, and Jesus was made unclean? No!

Virtue went forth from Him and immediately she was healed, and Jesus said to her, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith has made thee whole; go in peace.”

We see an active faith touching Him as the means of her salvation.

Jesus was met by a leper in Matthew 8:2, who worshipped Christ and spoke words that showed his faith. The leper was unclean. His wife and children could not touch him. The high priest would become unclean if he touched him.

He had not felt the consoling touch of anyone, but Jesus not only touched him, but put forth His Hand and voluntarily touched him, saying, “I will; be thou clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

If we are allowed to use a sanctified imagination, after he had gone to the priest as instructed, I’m sure he went home and gave his wife the most intense bear hug she had ever received.

We see the touch of the Master’s Hand with all its life giving salvation. The poet has written,

“‘Twas battered and scarred and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while

To waste much time on the old violin, but he held it up with a smile

What am I bidden, good folks, he said. Who’ll start the bidding for me

A dollar - one dollar, then two, only two? Two dollars and who’ll make it three?

Going for three, but no, from the room far back a grey-haired man came forward and picked up the bow,

And wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening the loosened string

He played a melody pure and sweet as the caroling angels sing.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer, in a voice that was quiet and low,

Said, Now what am I bid for the violin, and he held it up with the bow

A thousand dollars, who’ll make it two; two thousand, and who’ll make it three?

The people cheered, but some of them cried, we do not understand

What changed its worth? quick came the reply, the touch of a master’s hand.

And many a man with his life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin

Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin.

A mess of pottage; a glass of wine; a game, and he travels on -

He’s going once; he’s going twice; he’s going and almost gone.

But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand

The worth of a soul, and the change that’s wrought by the Touch of the Master’s Hand.”

Why could Jesus touch the leper and not be smitten with leprosy? Why could the unclean touch the Clean and, contrary to nature and the Law, receive that touch that made all difference, even if it was only the hem of His garment?

Now we come to the peasant teen ager to whom the angel Gabriel came with the good news that she was to be the mother of the Messiah. He Whose Touch brought salvation to the woman with the issue of blood and the leper was now to touch Mary.

The Holy Spirit implanted the fetal Body which He had prepared (Hebrews 10:5) in the womb of Mary. He touched her, and brought the salvation of which she testified in Luke 1:47. And that salvation meant to her all that any true salvation produces. Romans 4:8 says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

The hymn correctly states, “The old account was settled long ago.” Yes, and it will never be reopened. The sealing of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13) means that nothing further can go into that account, and nothing can be taken out (Ecclesiates 3:14, I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it . . .)

Because of faith in the Lord of Glory yet in her womb, Mary was justified, which has been explained to mean, “Just as if I’d never sinned.” That was Mary’s blessedness, which comes to all believers.

But there is a great difference between being justified and being immaculate. Churches are full of justified sinners who gladly adopt as theirs the British acrostic - ASSBG (A sinner saved by Grace). Such was also Mary’s testimony.

Our Roman Catholic friends seem to think that Mary’s sinlessness was necessary to maintain the sinless perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is absolutely unnecessary. Jesus’ impeccability (a state of being unable to sin) wrought the reversal of the Old Testament laws of unclean and clean.

The Altogether Lovely One during His brief sojourn on earthly sod, welcomed the sinners to His Bosom, and still calls out to all, “Come unto Me.”