Of course, Mary crushing the Serpent’s head didn’t end when she bore the Son of God as her Son. Because she is alive in Heaven she can and does advocate for all her children, all those who believe in Jesus Christ - Son of God, Son of Man.
Think of how a mother protects her children, even being willing to give her life for them. People often talk about this or that mother being like a mother bear. She will fight for her children. Now look at the image of Mary crushing the serpent’s head. It starts to make more sense.
We have a Mother on our side if we ask her for help. In fact, she is often there for her children even when they don’t know it or believe that she has that grace.
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Every time a person says no to God he or she is saying yes to Satan.
Every time a person says yes to God, he or she is saying no to Satan.
Eve said yes to Satan and her decision gave him the advantage over the rest of the human race. Satan thought he won, that God’s plan for the human race was defeated from the start.
However, Satan did not count on the Woman whose yes reversed Eve’s no. How so? By bearing the One who defeated sin, death, hell, Satan, and all forms of evil.
How does a believer defeat Satan, stomping on his head? By saying yes to God and no to sin.
How do we do this? By God’s grace, as did the kecharitōmenē, - the one already fully graced at the moment of her conception by God’s sovereign act.
Mary defeated Satan by God’s grace.
By God’s grace in Christ, so do we.
The image of Mary stomping on the dragon should fill us with hope. What God did for and through her, He can do for me as I stomp on the dragons in my own life through the power of Christ in me, the hope of glory.
There’s also the element of being saved through the child bearing..., but that’s another related subject as to why Satan doesn’t want women to have children.
Those are just some thoughts on the subject of Mary’s crushing of the head of the serpent, Satan. It needs more development, but I think I’m on the right track.
Most Protestants do not pray the Rosary or ask the Saints in glory to pray for them. I do. The Saints are willing to help us and to encourage us along the way - as Hebrews 12:1,2 indicate. They are in the stands, cheering us on which means they are alive and want us to succeed in our race as we keep our eyes on Jesus.
Hebrews 12English Standard VersionJesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
And Scripture talks about the prayers of the Saints. Yes. Protestants insist that this cannot mean that those Christians who are now in God’s presence are praying for those of us who are still in the race down here on earth. May I say that the Protestant view is a man made, dogmatic interpretation and not necessary at all.
The Church recognizes specific men and women who are Saints in heaven. The Church also recognizes that there are many more Saints in Heaven that are not recognized officially.
Revelation 5:8English Standard Version
8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
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Yes, if God had not intervened by His grace in her life, Mary would not have been able to live a sinless life. She would have inherited original sin from Adam just like everyone. However, God did intervene and saved her completely at the moment she was conceived in the womb.
Mary’s sinlessness was not an issue for Martin Luther. It was Calvin who changed the doctrine to make Mary a sinner who had inherited a fallen nature and was an active sinner like everyone else except Christ. Most Protestants have continued with his error. Calvin cherry picked Augustine, yet claimed to be Augustinian - only if he got to control what was true and what was false. That is a problem prevalent in Protestantism. Everyone claims his or her own authority as binding.
Protestants don’t have to reject the doctrine of Mary’s sinless life. Not all do, in fact. I guess Martin Luther didn’t get the dogma of the Immaculate Conception exactly right, but he was close. It’s clear from the following statement what he did believe. He was a Catholic priest after all.
Luther’s words follow:
It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary’s soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God’s gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin.
(Sermon: “On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God,” December [?] 1527; from Hartmann Grisar, S.J., from the German Werke, Erlangen, 1826-1868, edited by J.G. Plochmann and J.A. Irmischer,
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Here is the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in a short statement. Sure. Not all Christians believe this, but no Christian should be scandalized by it, especially those who hold to a monergistic view of salvation. What God wills, He does.
In fact, complete sanctification is the goal that God has for all Christians. It’s all of God’s grace working in the lives of believers. Mary is an example of what God wills for all His children eventually - that we be without sin.
Eastern Orthodox Christians have a different view since evidently they don’t accept St. Augustine’s teaching on original sin. Even so, they believe that Mary, by God’s grace, lived a sinless life.
491 Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, 134 was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:
The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. 135
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