What You and 'Mary' Should Stop Doing

One distinctive objection of Protestants to the Catholic faith is their elevation of “the Blessed Virgin Mary” (the Mother of Jesus) to the role of Co-Redemptrix. This is the belief that Mary as a result of her (ascribed) sufferings at the crucifixion of Christ, (along with her unique role as the “Mother of God” and mediatrix) shares a role in the believers’ salvation. 

While the average Protestant Christian will scoff at this belief (taught by the Catholic Church but not given full Papal endorsement), we are many times just as guilty of this.

We object to the concept of a co-redemptrix because (we say) ONLY Jesus paid the price for our sins and ONLY Jesus took our punishment, yet we look for ways to perform penance whenever we fall from God’s perfect standard.

There’s a thin, fine line between remorse for sin and a feeling of the need to do penance. If after we fall, we feel all our previous prayers and fastings are now inconsequential, or we feel God would no longer bless us, or we feel the devil is now free to do whatever he wants in our life, then we have become co-redemptrices with Christ. We and Christ are now both being punished for our sins.

Of the world’s religions, only Biblical Christianity shows the severity of SIN. Sin is a most objectionable transgression against a perfectly Holy God. The just consequence of sin is not a bad day, or an incurable disease or a lost job. Whenever we attribute negative circumstances in our temporal life to a sin we have committed, we insult God’s wrath against that sin.

The punishment for sin was taken upon by Jesus ALONE on the Cross. He alone knows what it means to suffer for Sin, He alone knows what it means to face God’s wrath at iniquity, and He alone is the One we are to look to at our moments of failure.

“Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation” (2Co 7:10), not an expectation of punishment.

Let Heb 10:17-18 throw some light on the issue:

Then he says, “I will forget their sins and never again remember the evil they have done.” And after everything is forgiven, there is no more need for a sacrifice to pay for sins. (ERV)

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN