Evening SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
3/3/2026 5:20 PM
My
Worship Time
Focus: PT-2 “The Divine Blessing”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
1:29-30
Message of the verses: “And coming in, he said to her,
“Greetings, favored one! The Lord is
with you.” But she was very perplexed at
this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid,
Mary; for you have found favor with God.”
I continue looking at these verses in this evening’s
SD, by continuing to look at some of the false things that were and are written
about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Now
John MacArthur was writing about the false things that the Roman church is
using to talk about Mary. MacArthur goes
on to write “That false, unbiblical view of Mary is an integral part of the
Roman Church’s practice of Mariolatry (the veneration and worship of Mary),
which blasphemes the Lord Jesus by worshiping another. In reality Mary was a humble, redeemed
sinner. She was not sinless from her
conception until her bodily assumption into heaven, as Catholic dogma
maintains, since as Jesus Himself declared, ‘No one is good except God alone’
(Luke 19:19; cf. Rom. 3:10). Nor is Mary the co-redeemer of the human race,
since sinners are ‘justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus’ (Rom. 3:24; cf. 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:13-14;
Heb. 9:12). She does not hear and
answer prayers or intercede for anyone, since there is ‘one mediator…between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus’ (1 Tim. 2:5). The teaching of Roman Catholicism that ‘there
is no surer or more direct road that by Mary for uniting all mankind in Christ
and obtaining through Him the perfect adoption of sons, that we may be holy and
immaculate in the sight of God’ (Pope Pius X, Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum)
is utterly false and blasphemous. The exalted, quasi-deified Mary or Roman
Catholic dogma is far removed from the humble, unassuming ‘bondslave of the
Lord’ (Luke 1:38) revealed in Scripture.
Gabriel’s pronouncement to Mary, ‘the Lord is with you,’ speaks
of God’s enabling of her (cf. Judg. 6:12).”
“12 And the angel of the LORD
appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O mighty man of
valor.’” “It reinforces the truth
that Mary was a recipient of God’s grace, not the dispenser of it to
others. Only God gives grace to sinners,
as Scripture indicates continually (cf. Rom. 3:24; 1 Cor. 1:4; Eph. 2:8, and
the repeated use of the phrase ‘the grace of God’).”
(cf. Rom. 3:24; 1 Cor. 1:4; Eph. 2:8)
“24 and are justified by his grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”
“4 I give thanks to my God always for you because
of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,”
“8 For by grace you have been saved through
faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,”
John MacArthur then goes on to write “Realizing that
she was an unworthy sinner (in verse 47, she called God her Savior, and only
sinners need a Savior), Mary was very perplexed at Gabriel’s
statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. It was not just his appearing to her that
caused Mary’s consternation, but what he said to her. Very perplexed translates
a form of the verb diatarassomai (‘greatly troubled, disturbed, or
confused’), a more intense form of the verb translated ‘troubled’ in verse 12,
where it described Zacharias’s reaction to Gabriel’s appearance. Mary was
perplexed because she knew that she knew that she was a sinner, and did not
understand why God had favored her. But
Mary’s genuine humility manifested her true righteousness (cf. Pss. 34:2; 138:6; Prov.
3:34; Isa. 66:2; Matt. 18:4; 20:26-28; Luke 14:11; James 4:6). All genuinely righteous people are distressed
and terrified in God’s presence (or, as in this case, one of His holy angels),
because they are acutely aware of their sin (cf. the reactions of Isaiah [Isa.
6:5]; nothing in her brief life could have prepared her for this astonishing
event.” [Isa. 6:5] “5 ¶ And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost;
for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’’”
“Seeking to calm her, Gabriel said
to the frightened girl, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary.’ His explanation, for you have found
favor with God, reassured Mary that she had nothing to fear; Gabriel had
come to her with a message of blessing, not judgment. Like Noah, Mary had ‘found favor in the
eyes of the Lord’ (Gen. 6:8). God
had sovereignly chosen to use her to help carry out His redemptive
purposes. The issue was not her merit or
worthiness, but God’s sovereign grace which, like all His ways, is ultimately
beyond human understanding (cf. Deut. 29:29; Ps. 36:6).”
(cf. Deut. 29:29; Ps. 36:6)
“29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our
God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever,
that we may do all the words of this law.”
“6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of
God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O LORD.”
3/3/2026
6:05 PM
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