Rome teaches that Mary, the mother of Jesus, acts as a mediator between humanity and God. She dispenses grace. She intercedes for salvation. Some go further and call her co-redeemer.
God's words say otherwise. There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Not two. Not a mother and a son sharing the office.
One. The word is not decorative. If Mary is a mediator, the sentence is false. If the sentence is true, Mary is not a mediator. There is no third reading that keeps both.
"And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."
Luke 1:47. A co-redeemer does not need redeeming. Mary rejoiced in God her Saviour. She stood on the same side of the cross as every other sinner who believes.
"Blessed art thou among women."
Luke 1:42. Among. She is honoured as the woman who bore the Christ. She is not lifted over the other women, and she is not lifted over the Christ.
"Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it."
John 2:5. At Cana she does not intercede as a dispenser of grace. She tells the servants to obey Jesus. The miracle is His. The instruction is to do what He says.
"Woman, what have I to do with thee?"
John 2:4. And later, when told his mother and brethren stood without, He asked who they were, and pointed at those who do the will of His Father. Matthew 12:46-50. Honour is not mediation.
The invitation is direct. Boldly. To the throne. Not through a woman, not through a saint, not through a priest. The high priest who opens that way is Christ. Hebrews 4:14-15.
Where a false doctrine is helped by a changed rendering, the change belongs next to God's words.
God's words say Mary was "highly favoured." Luke 1:28. That is a greeting. The Lord had chosen her for a work. It is not a statement that she is a storehouse of grace, or that grace flows through her to others.
Catholic Bibles, following the Latin, render it "full of grace." The Douay-Rheims has "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." That phrase is then used to build a woman who possesses grace in herself and can dispense it. The Greek behind "highly favoured" is a verb. She was favoured by God. She did not become the favour.
Modern versions often keep "favoured" here, then soften the mediator elsewhere by practice rather than by a deleted word. The Catholic line is the one that changes the greeting into a title. "Full of grace" is the seed of Mediatrix. "Highly favoured" is a woman chosen for a task.
The same pattern shows in how she is addressed. God's words never call her queen of heaven. That title belongs to a pagan worship Jeremiah was told to condemn. Jeremiah 7:18 and 44:17-25. Israel burned incense, poured out drink offerings, and made cakes to the queen of heaven. The Lord called it provocation. A system that crowns Mary with that title is walking back into a worship the Book already refused.
Mary as Mediatrix is not in the Book, and it is not in the earliest churches. The title grew.
The Council of Ephesus called her Theotokos, God-bearer. That was a statement about who Jesus is. God in the flesh. Later devotion took the title and built a woman above the church on the back of it.
Devotional writing began to call her co-redeemer and dispenser of grace. Apocryphal stories and the old mother-goddess pattern (Isis, Diana, the queen of heaven) supplied the shape the Book did not.
The office was pressed into formal teaching. Co-redeemer language is still being urged. A doctrine that arrives centuries after the apostles is not apostolic. It is an addition.
Jesus warned against the traditions of men that make the word of God of none effect. Mark 7:13. This is one of them. A woman is honoured past what is written, and the one Mediator is no longer alone in His office.
If Mary mediates, people will pray to her. Rome encourages it. God's words do not.
Requests are made known unto God. Not unto His mother. Bowing, burning, and asking a creature for what only the Creator gives is the definition the first commandment already closed. Calling it veneration instead of worship does not change the act. The dead in Christ are not a switchboard. They are with Him. We are told to come to Him.
All grace comes through Christ. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9. A dispenser of grace besides Him is another gospel. Hebrews 10:10 says we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Once. Not shared with a co-redeemer.
Mary was highly favoured. She bore the Christ. She believed. She is not the way, and she is not the mediator. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Come to Him. There is no one else in the office.