On this date (December 8) in 1854, Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti — known to the Roman Catholic world as Pope Pius IX — announced the doctrine he called “the Immaculate Conception.” According to this teaching Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived in the womb of her own mother without inheriting the sin of Adam, an inheritance often referred to as “original sin.”

This doctrine was deemed necessary by Pius IX as an answer to the question, “How could Jesus be without sin, since man’s sinful nature is hereditary?” The Catholic Church proclaimed, “Because His mother was without sin before Him, He had no sin to inherit.”

The real — and Biblical — answer to the question that baffled Catholicism is much simpler than the contrived fable of so-called “Immaculate Conception.” Jesus was without sin because He never sinned. The Scriptures state this plainly: “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ‘Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth’” (1 Peter 2:21-22). And again: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). No such inspired statement is ever made concerning Mary — or anyone else in the Bible, for that matter.

The root of Pius’s problem in this regard is his assumption that sin is passed from parent to child — a false assumption. The 18th chapter of Ezekiel refutes the notion of inherited sin in clear and certain terms. “The soul who sins shall die,” says God (Ezekiel 18:4, 20). Ezekiel describes the circumstance of “a man who is just and does what is lawful and right.” If he continues to walk in God’s statutes and keep His word faithfully, “‘he is just; he shall surely live!’ says the Lord God” (18:5-9). If this man’s son, however, disobeys God, “he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him” (18:10-13).

On the other hand, if this wicked man has a son “who sees all the sins which his father has done, and considers but does not do likewise,” this third generation individual “shall not die for the iniquity of his father; he shall surely live!” (18:14-17).

The bottom line, writes the prophet in verse 20, is this: “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” Could the Scripture be any more definitive? Sin is not inherited.

But what of that “original sin”? Don’t we all suffer and die because of Adam’s sin? Yes, we do, in the physical sense: “By man came death … in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22). We die physically because Adam, having been cast out of Eden, cut himself — and in turn, us — off from the tree of life. Adam’s body began to die the moment he stopped eating of that wonderful tree (Genesis 3:22-24), though the tree’s effect was so powerful Adam lived to be 930 years old. But by the time of Moses, the average lifespan of men had shrunk to what we know today, between 70 and 80 years (Psalm 90:10). We have old Adam to “thank” for this.

But for our sinful condition, and its result in spiritual death, we can each blame no one but ourselves. Paul writes, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). We are judged worthy of the wages of sin not because of the sins of Adam or of anyone else, but because of our own sin: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Jesus declared concerning little children, “Of such is the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:16). No child was ever a “born sinner.” But no child reaching accountable maturity has ever remained “immaculate” — except one: Jesus Christ, who knew no sin but “became sin” to save sinners (2 Corinthians 5:21).