What is the Immaculate Conception?

Holiness and immaculate conception of Mother Mary is a default necessity which directly stems from the purpose of God to save mankind from eternal death.

God had a plan to save his prized creation from the time of Adam’s disobedience in Garden of Eden. That’s the reason God became man in Jesus Christ. In order that we might not suffer the penalty of our evil choices (sin), He, like a loving father, paid the penalty for our sins. He allowed his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be born as human being, live an earthly life propagating His message of salvation.

God allowed his Son to be murdered on a Roman cross. But this act of great evil gave rise to an even better state of affairs, and the greatest act of love in the universe: paying the penalty for the wrong choices we make, which were the result of the way He created us in the first place! In the cross of Christ He has provided a full pardon from the consequences of the evil in our lives.

For this purpose to fulfill, Jesus was to be brought in this world with a human nature and hence needed a human mother. But there was a problem. A Son who is Divine in nature cannot come in a womb of a women who is defiled by the very nature as human beings.

Precisely because of this reason, God at the instance of conception in St Anna’s womb, Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved free from all stain of Original Sin. This was done by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits (Divinity) of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race “.

Mary, rather than being cleansed after sin, was completely prevented from contracting Original Sin in view of the foreseen merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race.

This we say is the “Immaculate Conception” of Virgin Mary. That is she was sinless at the time of her birth.

In Luke 1:47, Mary proclaims:

"My spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour."

This is referred to as Mary's pre-redemption by Christ.

Good answers all around, but let me add what the Blessed Virgin Mary herself said to St. Bernadette at Lourdes only a few years after the proclamation of the dogma:

Que soi era immaculada concepcion

which is

I am the Immaculate Conception

So, maybe the question shouldn't be what is the Immaculate Conception but who is the Immaculate Conception.

The Immaculate Conception is that which is required if Mary is the new Eve (that is to say that Eve is a type of Mary).

The premise that Eve is a type of Mary as evidenced in Scripture appears to be accepted by early Christians.

St. Justin Martyr writes in the second century:

[Jesus] became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. (Dialogue with Trypho, 100)

St. Irenaeus of Lyon writes in the second century:

And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin; virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. (Against Heresies, V.19.1)

St. Ephrem writes in the fourth century:

With the body then that [was] from the Virgin, [Jesus] entered Sheol and plundered its storehouses and emptied its treasures. He came then to Eve the Mother of all living. This is the vine whose fence Death laid open by her own hands, and caused her to taste of his fruits. So Eve the Mother of all living became the well-spring of death to all living. But Mary budded forth, a new shoot from Eve the ancient vine; and new life dwelt in her, that when Death should come confidently after his custom to feed upon mortal fruits, the life that is slayer of death might be stored up [therein] against him… (Homily on Our Lord, 3)

St. Augustine writes in the fourth century:

Our Lord . . . was not averse to males, for he took the form of a male, nor to females, for of a female he was born. Besides, there is a great mystery here: that just as death comes to us through a woman, life is born to us through a woman; that the devil, defeated, would be tormented by each nature, feminine and masculine, as he had taken delight in the defection of both. (Christian Combat 22.24)

The premise that the fulfillment of a type is always greater than the type itself is evidenced in Scripture and understood by most Christians. (See Matthew 13:52, 1 Corinthians 10:11, Hebrews 10:1, John 3:14.)

We can make a deductive argument from these two premises:

• Premise 1: Eve is a type of Mary.
• Premise 2: The fulfillment in the New Testament is always greater than the type in the Old Testament.
• Conclusion: Mary is greater than Eve.

We can make another deductive argument based on the conclusion:

• Premise 1: Eve was conceived (in the mind of God, i.e. created) without original sin (Genesis 2:22).
• Premise 2: Mary is greater than Eve.
• Conclusion: Mary was conceived without original sin (the Immaculate Conception).

One important point of belief of nearly every Christian fellowship and denomination is that Jesus Christ is the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and that this perfection is part of the reason His single sacrifice is able to cover the sins of so many. If Jesus were not perfect, his death would have been inadequate, and we are all lost.

This causes a small problem for those groups that believe in original sin: the idea that we inherit the guilt of Adam and Eve when they ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If Jesus also inherits this sin, he would no longer be the required perfect sacrifice.

Some such groups deal with this by concluding that this guilt is only passed down through the paternal line. Since Jesus had no biological father, he escapes original sin.

Catholics and some related groups believe that guilt is passed down both paternally and maternally. It's a side note, but this is probably a better interpretation, as Eve ate the fruit first... if you accept original sin at all (ie: Ezekiel 18:20). The Immaculate Conception refers to how Jesus escapes the guilt of his mother.

The idea of the Immaculate Conception is that Mary received special grace from the moment of her conception, such that at the time of her birth (and even through her entire lifetime) she was free from the burden of sin. This does not have to specifically mean that she never herself sinned (though many do believe this); it can also mean that she was in a state of special grace granted by God, sufficient to free Jesus from the original sin that He would have inherited from Mary. The important point is that when someone talks about Immaculate Conception, they're actually talking about Mary, and the reason why is the need for Jesus to not inherit original sin from his earthly mother.

It's also worth noting that there is no record, prophecy, or allusion to the Immaculate Conception anywhere in the Bible. The nearest is the "full of grace" expression in Luke ch. 1. However, the same phrase is used in a number of other places in scripture (Acts 6:8 and Colossians 4:6 for a start) for less-exalted purposes.