Why Mary Was Chosen to be Jesus' Earthly Mother
One of the questions I believe that need to be tackled in the study of salvation is why Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus. As a Christian, I would admit that indeed Mary was just a sinner but why was she chosen? The Calvinist has the view of predestination that certain people were chosen before birth. Jeremiah 1:5 has Jeremiah saying, "Before you formed me in the womb, You knew me." Calvinism as a school of thought was used by famous Baptist preachers like Charles H. Spurgeon and John Gill. The doctrine of election may be understood through Mary the mother of Jesus. Although Mary was just human, she certainly was not conceived without sin but one thing is certain, like John the Baptist, she holds an important role in Biblical prophecy. After all, she is the mother of Jesus Christ. Scripture was to be fulfilled and Mary like John the Baptist, is an important character.
One may admit Mary was humble before the message of the angel Gabriel that she would carry the Son of God in her womb, that's why God chose her. She praised God as her Savior, she readily said yes knowing she needed a Savior from sin, she knew she was not sinless and that only God was her Savior. One can say well God knew she would say yes. One may say because Mary was a faithful follower of God. There were certain women like Mary's cousin Elizabeth who was a faithful woman and barren, but instead she was chosen to bear John the Baptist Mary was certainly qualified but there could have been other women just as qualified as her as a faithful follower of God. Any faithful woman who was a descendant of David would have gladly offered any sin offering like Mary did knowing they are sinners in need of salvation. A closer study of the Holy Scriptures will tell us a lot of reasons why Mary was chosen to be Jesus' earthly mother.
Luke 3 records the genealogy of Jesus to which He came from. When Joseph is mentioned as the "son" of Heli, this Heli would be the father of Mary... and thus Joseph is the "son" or son-in-law of Heli. Luke writes the genealogy of Mary backwards which goes back to Adam. When you look at Mary's line, one can see that David had a son named Nathan by Bathsheba, named after the prophet Nathan who condemned his adultery with the same woman. It's noteworthy to think Bathsheba was both a bad mother and a good mother. She was a bad mother at first because of her adultery with David. However she was a good mother to Solomon whom the LORD favored. But by Bathsheba, David had other sons and Nathan was one of them (1 Chronicles 3:5). So Mary was a descendant of David and for Jesus to be the Seed of David and Seed of the Woman, Mary was the perfect candidate.
But one may ask, weren't there other women who were descendants of Mary who would be pleasing to God as one of His own? Another thing we must remember is that Mary was engaged to Joseph the carpenter. Matthew 1 records the genealogy of Jesus that Joseph descended from Solomon and that would make him a descendant of David too. Both Mary and Joseph were descendants of David. If Ruth was the virtuous Moabite, Mary would be that virtuous Jew. If Boaz was that virtuous man, Joseph was also a virtuous man. If Ruth's marriage to Boaz brought forth Obed, Joseph's marriage to Mary was going to make him the foster father of Jesus. The fact that Mary was going to marry Joseph was going to to have Jesus both legally (father side) a descendant of David and biologically (mother side) a descendant of David. Remember that while the Davidic Dynasty did end after Zedekiah because of sin, the curse... but Jehoiachin was later treated kindly in Babylon. Having both legal and biological lineage to David would help fulfill the prophecy of Jesus and strengthen the truth of the claims of being the Son of David in His humanity. Elizabeth was married to a Levite so therefore she wasn't qualified to fulfill that prophecy about Jesus, rather she was more qualified to fulfill the prophecy about John the Baptist as her husband was a priest, and priests were only from the tribe of Levi.
I also thought of Mary's role being Jesus' mother was to also later fulfill this prophecy. Psalm 69:8 declares the sad prophecy that Jesus would be a stranger unto his mother's children. Jesus' maternal siblings didn't believe Him until the resurrection. John 7:5 states the fulfillment of that prophecy that neither did Jesus' own siblings believe in Him. But later, I was also thinking, both James and Jude both participated in the Apostolic Ministry. James somewhat became a commentator on the works of Paul. Galatians 1:19 the Apostle Paul mentions James as the Lord's brother, the brother of Jesus who was a son of Mary and Joseph. Everything was really planned and perhaps, one may understand the doctrine of predestination for some people through Mary aside from Jeremiah, Moses and David.