That is not true. It can be inferred in Luke 1:28 ("Hail Mary, full of grace"). This phrase is only used on one other person, Jesus (John 1:14, He is "full of grace and truth"). Protestants define grace as undeserved favor with God. This is why the modern Protestant versions have translated Luke 1:28 as "highly favored one". But then John 1:14 would also be translated as "highly favored one" since it is basically the same Greek word. But that does not make sense when used on Jesus. The Catholics define grace as the divine activity or divine life of God. That makes more sense to me. Jesus is full of the divine life because He is God. And Mary is full of divine life because of God's mercy.
But what they have in common is the word "full". They do not just have grace. We are all saved by grace (Eph 2:8, 9). But none of us are FULL of grace, as Jesus and Mary were. They were so FULL of grace with there would be no room for sin.
A difference in the Greek word "full" between John 1:14 and Luke 1:28 is that the tense in the former is the simple past tense (Jesus is full of grace) and the latter is in the passive present perfect tense. Also the word "Mary" is not in the Greek text. So it would be best translated as "Hail, One who has been made full of grace". The passive present perfect means that there was an act done upon her in the past (by God) that made her in the present to be full of grace.
This was soley an act of God. And the good work done upon her will be done on each one of once we see Christ face to face. Then we will be filled with God's divine life.
My congratulations on toeing the Catholic line of Bible interpretation. Too bad it is incorrect IMPO.
Luke 1:28...……..
"And the angel came in to her, and said, Hail, you that are highly favored, the Lord is with you: blessed are you
among women."
YOU have followed the RCC line and accepted "FULL OF GRACE" but, those words ARE NOT IN THE BIBLE are they?
The idea that one can read into this word meaning "object of grace/favor" any degree of sinlessness or perfection on the basis of a "perfect" verb form indicates a complete misunderstanding of what "perfect" means in grammatical terms. In verbs, it only means "completed action" – not sinlessness.
So then, To call this word a "hapax" in an attempt to bestow some sort of uniqueness on Mary is disingenuous.
In other words, the verb in question from Luke 1:28 has as its first or internal object "favor/grace" and as its second or true direct object "us". We get / have gotten favor/grace
from God in Jesus Christ.
We know that here because the verse says so explicitly, but that is not any kind of surprise for anyone who understands that grace is favor, and specifically and importantly in the Bible it is
God's favor.
His beneficence, good will, grace, kindliness, etc. directed our way because of our relationship with His Son. We are
all said to have this grace in Ephesians 1:6
and there it is expressed by
exactly the same verb as is used in Luke 1:28.
That doesn't mean, of course, that we never sin as that would mean all the Scriptures in the Bible that say "WE ARE ALL SINNERS would have to be removed from the Bible.
Then notice the ACTUAL WORDS in the Scriptures. The first thing to notice is that Mary was "Blessed art thou
among women, NOT ABOVE ALL WOMEN."
Now please use your Hebrew concordance and according to the Hebrew idiom, you will see that it means....." thou art the happiest of all the women that ever lived.".
Then It must be observed, that this salutation gives no room for any pretence of paying adoration to the virgin; as having no appearance of a prayer, or of worship offered to her. Besides, with only a little Bible study you will se similar expressions are applied to others through out the Scriptures.
"Hail", is the salutation used by our Lord to the women after his resurrection: thou art highly favoured, or, hast found favour with God, is no more than was said of Noah, Moses, and David. The Lord is with thee, was said to Gideon in Judges 6:12.
You said......
"But none of us are FULL of grace, as Jesus and Mary were. They were so FULL of grace with there would be no room for sin."
That is purely a personal OPINION and it has not Bible truth whatsoever in it.
As to the translation "full of grace"......
while there is nothing to recommend the "full of" here, it's not really the translation that's the problem but rather what R.C. theology attempts to do with it and would no doubt attempt to do with any reasonable translation, namely, to make Mary sinless or special in some super-human way based upon this appellation.
Mary was special indeed, a true believer in a time of wide-spread apostasy, and obviously an exceptionally good one too, with whom the Lord was well-pleased indeed. But there is no indication that she was perfect, nor was there any need for her to be, for the only way to avoid the reception of a sin nature is to be virgin born as the sin nature is passed down through the male side.
It was the fact that Jesus was born without human male participation that produces a body free from sin, not any supposed sinlessness on Mary's part.
I reccoment to you this site to help your understnading........
Mary 'Full of Grace'?