Mary is Jesus’ mother. She bore Him. She is not the mother of Christ’s humanity. A mother gives birth to an individual person, not a soul, or body, or abstract concept like human nature or humanity. Mary gave birth to Someone with a unique identity: Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is God, the eternal Son. So Mary is Mother of God.
God is in me. But for me there always remains a distinction between God and me, regardless how close He might be, even if He is closer to me than my brain or heart. I am never God. I am not eternal. There was when I was not.
With Jesus the situation is decisively different. His existence did not begin with His earthly conception. Who Jesus is is eternal. One cannot distinguish between God in Him and He himself. “Jesus is the Eternal Son; He is God. So there is a strict identity between God-in-Jesus and Jesus himself. . .He is God the Eternal Son. The one who was born as a human baby, Jesus, was no other than the Eternal Son of the Father.”
Mary conceived as her son, the Eternal Son of God, who developed in her womb as a human being. After carrying Him to term, the Virgin Mary gave Him birth. She did not give birth to Jesus’ divinity. She is not the mother of the divine nature, but the mother of someone with the divine nature, someone who, as a human baby, needed to be nursed and carried, yet someone who holds the universe in existence.
The unique Son of God was begotten twice. He was born eternally of the Father before creation. Mary was not involved. He was also born in time, as the man Jesus. In this second birth, Mary played a major role. The Father’s role in Jesus' temporal birth was primary, yet Mary’s was indispensable. The same someone who was born eternally of the Father was born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary.
There is only one grammatical subject in Jesus, and that is God the Eternal Son. The Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed (A.D. 381) states: “We believe. . .in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all time. . .He. . .was made flesh by the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, and became man. . . .”
The word “God” carries different meanings. It often signifies the Father. If we so understand the term, Mary is not the mother of God. Obviously, she is not the mother of the Eternal Father. He is her source and the source of all. She is not His source. The word “God” also refers to the Trinity. Clearly Mary is not the mother of the Trinity. “God,” likewise, signifies One who possesses the divine nature. Because it is possessed, “owned,” equally, though differently, by Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each Trinitarian Person is necessarily and equally God.
Since the Son of God is God and Mary carried Him as a human being in her womb, ultimately giving Him birth, she is the mother of God. She mothered Him in His acquired humanity. The Divine Son, eternal and without beginning, experienced an earthly beginning through Mary.
Mary is our mother by adoption. But she is the natural mother of God the Son. He is the fruit of her womb, Jesus.
An excellent explanation. Thank you.
Would you like to elaborate on the development of Marian worship?
Mary is our SISTER in Christ, not our mother. She is part of the Bride of Christ as are all believers in Jesus Christ. Mary is NOT the spouse of the Father nor of the Holy Spirit, either. She was married to Joseph, the foster father of Jesus and they both played a crucial role in the incarnation of the Son of God whereby ALL can be saved who receive Him by faith. Mary was the "God bearer", because, by her flesh, God the Son became a man, took on human flesh so that He could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
Mary is honored, because she was an honorable and faithful woman. She is an example of faith and steadfastness to ALL Christians. Mary was a good Jewish woman but she was NOT sinless - because ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) She, as do we all, must rely wholly upon the grace and mercy of God who makes us righteous through faith. She will join us at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb as the redeemed of Christ. Christ, alone, is exalted and ALL glory is His.
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)