Does Mary Intercede?
Let’s allow the Bible to answer the question: Does Mary intercede for the believers?
1-The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is the only Mediator between God and man. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Only through Christ can the sinner be reconciled to God (John 14:5–6; Romans 5:1–2).
There are only two areas in which Christians need intercession: salvation and prayers.
Concerning salvation, the apostle Peter stated that “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name [Jesus] under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Paul wrote, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he [Jesus] ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). Jesus is the one and only Intercessor for the believers.
Concerning prayer, intercession also belongs to Jesus. When teaching His disciples to pray to the Father (Matthew 6:9), Jesus did not teach them to pray to (or through) Mary or any of the saints. Yet, Catholicism created a prayer—the “Hail Mary”—to include the words “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death.”
But Jesus declared, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14). Jesus is the only One who can mediate or intercede in our prayers, since “[a]ll things that the Father has are [His]” (John 16:15).
2-The Bible mentions only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit when referring to the Deity (Matthew 28:19; Matthew 3:16-17; John 10:30; 17:21). Mary is merely a created being.
3-Jesus said, “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man” (John 3:13). No human being has gone to heaven to learn of “heavenly things” (verse 12). Only the Son of man, who came from heaven, has ever been there, and He alone can reveal them.
There is no reference in the scriptures about Mary taken to heaven. The dead are waiting for the Resurrection Day to be raised (John 11:24; 1 Corinthians 15:52). At the Second Coming, the dead in Christ will be raised (Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) and they will be taken up, together, with the living saints to meet the Lord in the clouds.
4-Mary, like all men and women, needed intercession herself. In Luke 1:47, Mary declared: “My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” If Mary needed salvation, then she also needed the only Intercessor of salvation—Jesus Christ (Hebrews 7:25). Being a sinner (Romans 3:23), Mary needed Jesus who alone could make peace between her and God (2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Colossians 1:20).
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In His service,
BibleAsk Team
