GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 1:46-47
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
To “magnify” or glorify a thing is to make it large with what we say, or how we react to it, or even how we think about it. A husband and wife magnify one another by never putting one another down in public or private, and by always seeing the best in each other (in short, by truly fulfilling their vows). Mary says that her soul was now doing this for the Lord, carrying her understanding to new depths and her thoughts and insights to new heights. Luther said, “It is as if she said, ‘My life and all my senses float in the love and praise of God and in lofty pleasures, so that I am no longer mistress of myself; I am exalted, more than I exalt myself, to praise the Lord.’”
Mary says that she rejoices in God her Savior. There are people in the world who think that they can manipulate God; who try to get something out of God. Simon the magician was one. He tried to buy the Holy Spirit from Peter and John even after he had been baptized (Acts 8:18-19). He was corrupted by his desire for power, and he could not control himself or rid himself of his old lust. He wanted to use God for his own ends. Luther calls such people “nothing else than parasites who seek their own advantage in God.”
The most important words here are “God my Savior.” God was at this moment both outside of Mary and within her, physically, in her womb. This must have been an overwhelming and humbling feeling; indescribable and incalculable in its magnitude. And what magnitude! Mary was magnifying the magnitude of it all with her soul, her own spirit!
Did Mary need a Savior? We’re aware that this verse is one of our clearest passages against the Roman Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary. That doctrine maintains that Mary was born without sin and that she remained sinless her whole life. Let me quote from WELS pastor Curtis Jahn:
“Aren’t Catholic theologians aware of Mary’s own testimony in this verse of the Magnificat? Indeed, they are well aware of it, and they do try to reconcile the clear and obvious truth of this verse with their unscriptural teaching by resorting to some slight-of-hand theological sophistry. ‘Yes,’ the Romanists say, ‘God truly was Mary’s savior. Based on Christ’s merits, God saved and redeemed Mary from all sin by not allowing her ever to become sinful!’” (“Exegesis and Sermon Study of Luke 1:46-55, The Magnificat”).
Catholic theologians refer to this unique form of redemption as ‘preredemption’ (praeredemptio or redemptio anticipata). Their claim is that sanctifying grace was infused into Mary’s soul immediately after its creation in her mother’s womb. This teaching contradicts Paul’s statement in Romans 3:23-24: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Mary uses the possessive (genitive) word “my” (Greek μου). Why does she rejoice this way? Because, she says, Jesus is my Savior. No one needs a saving hand who is not drowning. No one needs a fire hose whose house is not burning. No one needs a net who is not falling. Oh, a swimmer can be confident that a lifeguard is on duty. A homeowner is relieved to know that there is a hose and a fireman available. The girl on the trapeze is reassured that there is a net down below. But none of them knows what it is to be truly thankful and joyful for those things until they are needed. Mary needed her Savior because Mary, like each one of us, was a sinner. She inherited original sin from Eve. She was guilty of falling into sins even against the First Commandment in the record of the Gospels (Mark 3:19-21,32-35). But she was thrilled to have a Savior. We are thrilled to have the very same Savior from the same guilt, the same inherited shame, the same reckless and rebellious sins. Mary’s Savior is our Savior. Put your faith in him.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota