REFORMATION DAY October 24-25, 2026
“PROPITIATION: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?” – Romans 3:19-28
Rev. Kelly Crabbe, Ascension Lutheran, Littleton, CO
“19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.“
Grace to you & peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.
Today we celebrate the Protestant Reformation. It began on October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and theology professor at the University of Wittenberg, Germany, nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the town Church, starting a huge movement that is still causing waves around the world in how people see the value of the individual, emphasis on personal freedoms, encouragement toward widespread literacy because Luther translated the Bible into the language of the people, the elevation of how people saw their work as housewives and farmers and laborers and doctors as doing their job as a calling from God, and on it goes.
But the most important change was restoring the understanding of Salvation being a gift from God, not something you have to work for. If you lived before Luther came on the scene, you would have been taught that if you do enough good things, you just may earn your way into Heaven, but you probably wouldn’t make it. Soooo, there was a piece of paper called an indulgence that would help with that. It was authorized by the Pope himself to pay for a new and extravagant place of worship in Rome that would be called St. Peter’s Basilica. This indulgence would cut off tons of time that you or even your deceased loves ones would be spending in purgatory. How much money you had to spend got more years cut off. One man even made up a jingle as part of his sales pitch.
“As soon as the coins in the moneybox ring, the soul from purgatory will quickly spring.”
Many good things came out of the Reformation, but we are primarily celebrating the wonderful truth that it is by God’s grace alone that you and I are saved, not by our own efforts, but by God’s amazing grace. Luther rediscovered this truth as he studied Bible verses such as Romans 1:17, “The righteous will live by faith.” And Ephesians 2:8-9, “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of your works, so that no one may boast.” And Romans 3:23-25, which is part of our epistle reading for today. “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 but are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.”
Luther wanted this to be clear to every heart and mind, and we want the same thing. But there’s a word in Romans 3:25 that doesn’t seem to be clear? The word is PROPITIATION. If you look at various English translations of Romans 3:25 there is quite a difference. The Greek word is hilastērion. In the King James Version, the English Standard Version and the New American Standard Version it’s translated PROPITIATION. In the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version it’s translated SACRIFICE OF ATONEMENT. And in the Christian Standard Bible it’s translated MERCY SEAT. All those teams of translators were trying to get the same idea across, that God loves you and wants you to have His forgiveness. The word propitiation means TO PUT THINGS RIGHT, or TO BECOME INCLINED TO HAVE FAVOR TOWARD SOMEONE. But there’s the problem. God has always been inclined toward you, He has always loved you. You know the verse, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world SO THAT He gave His only begotten Son…” He loved you, therefore He gave. He didn’t send Jesus so He could finally START loving you. As one professor in Seminary said, “God the Father wasn’t looking at you and scowling in anger, and then when He put on a pair of “Jesus glasses” He suddenly changed His mind about you and said, ‘Oh, I guess I do love you. Now I’ll start showing it.” No, He already loved you, and that’s why He sent the Savior.
But why did a Savior have to come? Because there was this terrible division between us and God and between all of us on this earth, what we call our sinfulness, and we couldn’t fix it. But God could, and He did. He wanted to have that beautiful relationship with us again like they enjoyed in the Garden of Eden when they met together every day, when they talked and walked and showed love for one another, when Adam and Eve desired to serve one another and take care of the creation instead of trying to rule over each other and abuse the rest of the beautiful place. That’s what Reformation is about. Wouldn’t that be amazing if we all treated each with respect and love, and that we could all be secure in the knowledge of where we will be for eternity, living in God’s grace now and for eternity?
So God told Moses the beginning of His plan. God said I want you to have something made called the Ark of the Covenant, a box made of acacia wood. Make it 27”wide, 27” tall, and 45” long. Cover it inside and out with plates of gold. And the tablets of stone with the 10 commandments I’ve given you, place them inside the box. (Later on two other things were put into this Ark, a gold container filled with manna to help remember God always provides what we need for this body and life, and the other thing was Aaron’s staff that had miraculously budded, produced flowers and ripe almonds, all from a dead piece of wood showing that God can bring life from death.)
The lid for the box was solid gold and on top of that lid were two angels, also made of solid gold. The angels had their wings forward and their faces looking down at the lid because that’s where once a year sacrificial blood from bulls and goats was poured, right onto that lid. And that’s where God would meet with Moses, at the mercy seat.
But the mercy seat was not just a throne to say God is kind. It’s not about overlooking our failure to live out God’s laws. It was actually affirming the Law. It stood over the Law not to erase it but to answer its demands. God didn’t leave us in our sins. He provides atonement for those sins. When Adam and Eve sinned, God told them He would provide a Savior. When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, God delivered them, gave them their freedom and led them to the Promised Land. God is so loving. His will is always to save us. The Law was given not because of His wrath, but because of His grace filled nature. He wants us to know when we’re heading in the wrong direction, and the Law shows us that. And when the Law does its job in our spirit we come to Him in repentance and He restores us, He reminds us of His love.
So in the Old Testament, the mercy seat was the physical location where the blood of the atoning sacrifice was offered. However, this wasn’t the final manifestation of God’s mercy. Hebrews 10 tells us plainly. “Since the law was only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The Ark of the Covenant was not an end in itself. It pointed us to the One who would be the final sacrifice and payment for our sins. It points us to the cross of Christ. Instead of acacia wood covered by gold, it was the wood of the cross covered by something much greater than gold. It was covered by the blood of our Savior Jesus.
Many of us saw the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” People have been looking for the Ark of the Covenant for many centuries, but we don’t have to look for it anymore. It did its job. It pointed the way. Its purpose was fulfilled. Those two gold angels God told Moses to have on the top of the lid of the ark we see again, but this time in a grave. We read John 20:11-12. “11 But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’s body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.” Jesus had been where those two angels were kneeling. That was the mercy seat for a time when Jesus descended into hell to announce His victory. And now God’s mercy seat is closer to us than ever. It’s here in our midst, on the altar where the blood of Christ is placed to remind us of His love and to equip us with forgiveness through His blood. His presence is here in this holy Supper, what we call the real presence in the Holy Communion, where He comes to meet us.
That’s the essence of the protestant reformation, receiving God’s grace, His gift of mercy. It’s a gift because He did it all and gives it to you without charge. Not our works, but all His. And that’s what propitiation is all about. But how do we remember what that word means in the future? I hope this doesn’t seem silly, because I don’t mean it that way. When you see the word PROPITIATION it may help to think of it this way. He’s a PRO at rescuing you from the PIT of hell. May you rejoice in your heart that you have a God that loves and rescues and guides you through this fallen world. God be praised! Amen.
