Gabriel greets Mary as one whom God has favored. Her honor is extraordinary: she will bear the Son of the Most High. The greeting directs attention to God’s gracious action toward her, and her response receives what his word announces.
The Word
χαριτόω (charitoō) means to favor or to bestow grace upon. Luke 1:28 uses κεχαριτωμένη (kecharitōmenē), a perfect passive participle addressing Mary as one who has been favored.
The passive form identifies her as the recipient. The perfect presents her in the resulting state of that favor. This is useful grammatical information; the form alone does not supply a complete account of when the favor began or settle every later question about Mary.
Range of Meaning
The other New Testament occurrence is Ephesians 1:6. There the verb is active: God has freely bestowed grace upon believers in his beloved Son.
The two forms should not be blurred. It is inaccurate to say that the verb is always passive. In Luke, Mary receives favor; in Ephesians, God is the acting subject and believers receive his grace. Both passages identify a gift, while describing different settings.
Where You’ll Meet It
Gabriel says:
“Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28, NET)
Mary is troubled by the greeting. The angel then tells her not to fear because she has found favor with God, and announces the child she will bear. The surrounding account concerns God’s promise and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 1:3–8 praises the Father for his blessings in Christ, including adoption, redemption through Christ’s blood, and forgiveness. The use of charitoō there places grace within the saving gifts believers receive in the Son.
Mary’s particular calling is not interchangeable with everyone else’s. The shared verb nevertheless helps us see that receiving grace is no embarrassment to her honor.
What Confessional Lutherans Hear
Christians rightly honor Mary as the mother of our Lord and as a hearer who receives God’s word in faith. Her response in Luke 1:38 directs attention to what God has promised to do.
That honor does not require making her the source from which God’s grace originates. The greeting presents her as favored by God, and the promised child is the Savior upon whom faith rests.
The grammar serves this reading without becoming a substitute for it. A passive participle is not by itself the whole doctrine of salvation by grace. The narrative and the wider apostolic proclamation identify the giver, the gift, and the Savior through whom it comes.
Where People Get It Wrong
The familiar rendering full of grace can be heard as though Mary possessed a supply to distribute independently. That conclusion is not contained in the Greek expression. Even the English phrase does not necessarily imply that she is the source of what she has received.
The opposite error treats honoring Mary as a threat to Christ. Luke gives her a remarkable place in God’s work. We honor that place faithfully by hearing the promise she receives and confessing the Son she bears.
So What
Receive grace as a gift before trying to measure it as an achievement. Mary does not need to manufacture the favor announced to her, and believers do not manufacture the grace bestowed in Christ.
Her example directs you toward God’s trustworthy word. Faith can answer his promise because the giver has already spoken.