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Of the great disparities that exist between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism there is none that seems to supersede the view held of Mary, the mother of the Christ. The Catholic Church has stated that they do not “worship” Mary but “venerate” her. While Protestants try to parse the difference between these words, it seems the clear choice has been to do neither. Today, many Christians seemingly relegate Mary to a forgotten player in the narrative of Christ’s life.

Several passages in the New Testament refer to Mary, the mother of our Lord. The one that is, without doubt, the most recognized Scripture is recorded in the Gospel according to Luke. In Chapter 1, verse 28, the angel greeted Mary with the word “Hail” (chairo, SC 5463) meaning, “grace, joy, rejoice, be glad, hello, farewell.” This salutation was paralleled in Latin by the expression, “Ave.” It was a standard greeting in either language among friends or acquaintances. Hence, we have the Latin greeting “Ave Maria” meaning literally, “Hello Mary or Greetings Mary.”

The angel continued his pronouncement by telling Mary she was “highly favored” (charitoo, SC 5487) of God. The angel told Mary that because the Lord was with her, she had found “grace, been made acceptable, accepted, favored, a recipient of kindness.” This prophetic pronouncement has for over two millennia, singled Mary out as the “Most blessed” by the Most High God. The Catholic Church was thus inspired to build churches, schools, hospitals and orphanages and to write anthems dedicated to the “Blessed Mother.” Meanwhile, the Protestants hardly give her a second thought, or so it seems.

The inability to relate may have a bearing on our ability to venerate Mary. Most Christians cannot see themselves as qualifying for such a glorious evaluation from God as Mary received. We deal with our inferiority complexes, sin-consciousness, guilt and condemnation and we do not dare dream of receiving such a superlative from the Lord, much less, an angelic visitation. However, the Holy Spirit used the Apostle Paul to assure us that (1) there are no strata in the Kingdom establishing levels of Righteousness and (2) God has bestowed on ALL of His children the identical measure of Grace He gave to Mary.

How do we know this? In Ephesians 1:6, Paul states that the Church has been “accepted in the beloved” (Jesus). The Greek word for “accepted” (charitoo, SC 5487) is the very same expression used by the angel to Mary and means the very same thing! The believer today has the identical “highly favored” designation that Mary received.

The Holy Spirit declared through Paul that each child of God is “highly favored”. God conferred this favor upon His Church through Jesus Christ. The same degree of God’s favor has been conferred TO ALL who are in the Body of Christ. This powerful principle helps to clarify many of the passages in the Epistles that deal with the status of the believer, our identification and position we have been given through Jesus and the benefits of having “the favor of the Lord” conferred upon us.

When the fellowship of believers gathers for another Celebration of Worship, let the Anthem ring out for all the Church to hear “AVE EVERYBODY! “ We all are highly favored in the Lord.”

Happy digging in God’s Gold Mine!

****A Personal Word to Our Readers from Dr. Frazier****

There are great insights to be derived from the study of the Greek New Testament. Each month I will endeavor to share a nugget of truth from the Book of Truth, God’s Eternal Word.
These will be concise and should not intrude into your time or opportunity to explore the richness of the vein from which they were extracted. That is for you and the Holy Spirit to excavate together. These nuggets are just to let you know where to begin the digging, if you so desire. They are NOT designed to be an exhaustive commentary providing all the answers on the subject. The Spirit will guide you in how deep to dig. The Greek will be presented in a way that is easy to understand (transliterated) and easy to verify (“SC” refers to Strong’s Concordance). With a little help, you can check the assayers report for yourself. So, pull out this shiny, new nugget and see where it leads you. Please feel free to share your questions, observations or insights with our readers and me.

Website: http://www.donfrazier.com

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