Romans 3:25 “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed”.

The Greek word hilasterion is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew kapporeth which refers to the Mercy Seat of the Ark. Hilasterion can be translated as either “propitiation” or “expiation” which then imply different functions of the Mercy Seat. The English dictionary definition of “propitiation” literally means to make favorable and specifically includes the idea of dealing with God’s wrath against sinners. Expiation literally means to make pious and implies either the removal or cleansing of sin.
The idea of propitiation includes that of expiation as its means, but the word “expiation” has no reference to quenching God’s righteous anger. The difference is that linguistically the object of expiation is sin, not God (that is, sin is removed, not God). Linguistically, one propitiates a person (makes them favorable), and one expiates a problem (removes it). Christ’s death was therefore both an expiation and a propitiation. By expiating (removing the problem of) sin God was made propitious (favorable) to us.
Praise God! In and through Christ I have favor with God, you have favor with God through faith. He has not only dealt with my present sins and future sins but my past sins with His blood. I’m clean, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; … The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; and there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. …”.

You have favor with God through Christ Jesus, rejoice!

Recently I sent out an email and often I end my letter with “Slave in Christ”. I was asked about my statement and how they where intrigued with this. When I was in Africa I was going through many trials and had sensed a change in my spirit that Christ was changing my direction of ministry, it was in Africa that the Spirit of God gave me a vision of Christ on the Cross and a personal Word that so impacted my life that when I came back I wasn’t the same anymore. I have come to the realization that for one to truly experience the life of Christ, one must surrender to the work of the cross in the believer’s life.

Romans 1:1
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called [to be] an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,
Out of the six Greek words for “servant” used in the New Testament, Paul used one of the most slavish terms possible. The word used in this verse is “DOULOS” and comes from the root word “DEO.” DEO, means “to bind” (Strong’s Concordance). So Paul is literally speaking of himself as being a bondman or slave of Jesus Christ–a slave by free choice yet owned and purchased by Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

The idea of being a love-slave by choice comes from Old Testament passages such as;

Exodus 21:2-6
“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
“But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

When Israelites bought Hebrew slaves, they had to set them free in the seventh year. However, if the slaves loved their masters and didn’t want to go free, then holes were bored through the lobes of their ears, pronouncing them bond-slaves forever.

By the use of this word, Paul was declaring Jesus as his absolute Master yet indicating the idea of his expression of love and free choice to the one whom he served.

Now I realize that I have not attained nor maybe will never reach a heart level of total servitude and perhaps some might be thinking this is a goal that you are shooting for being a slave, but to experience the presence of God is a driving force in my life. I like how Paul put it in Philippians 3, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Slave in Christ
Robert