The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus #2: God Chooses Imperfect People

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the one law of God’s kingdom, and it is the same as the one command Jesus gave: love one another as He loved us. In this second message of the series, Dr. William P. Hohman shows that God chose imperfect people on purpose, that He has made a covenant to bless and never to be angry with those who give their lives to Him, and that our faith has to rest on what Jesus has already done.

This message continues from The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus #1: No Condemnation in Christ. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps you can take this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This teaching from NTC Ministries was posted on November 5, 2024. Dr. Hohman explains that the series grew out of his earlier teaching on the divine exchange in Isaiah 52 to 54. In Isaiah 52 the people did not know the Lord and ended up in bondage; in Isaiah 53 Jesus came with the cure; and in Isaiah 54 God made a covenant to bless.

He says that at heart he is teaching on the love of God, but he calls it the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus because that is exactly what it is. The message ends with an invitation to receive Jesus and to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

One Law and One Command

Dr. Hohman starts with the covenant of Isaiah 54:9–10. As surely as God swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth, He has sworn that He will not be angry with His people or rebuke them, and that His kindness will not depart. It is a covenant to bless and to have mercy.

The question is what we do with that knowledge. No one, he says, is producing everything God wants; even Billy Graham knew he could have done more. We are limited by our knowledge, by our dedication and by these human bodies. Yet God wants to fulfill all His plans and potential for us, and Dr. Hohman promises to show from Scripture that it will happen.

In the kingdom of heaven, he teaches, there is only one law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and only one command: love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34). The law and the command are identical. Every one of us has been uniquely designed and lavishly loved by God.

Jesus came in love, not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17). On the cross He took all our iniquity and its penalty (Isaiah 53:4–6), destroyed death, hell and the grave, and poured out His love. Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

The text for the series is Romans 8:1–2: there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. There is no perfect church and no perfect person, Dr. Hohman says, but by one offering Christ has perfected forever those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14).

God Chooses Imperfect People

Look at the twelve apostles, Dr. Hohman says. They were not especially good folks, and each was different. Simon the Zealot came from a militant background. Matthew was a tax collector, despised by his own people. Peter had an anger problem and rebuked Jesus for speaking of the cross, and Jesus answered, “Get behind Me, Satan” (Matthew 16:22–23).

Yet that same Peter later walked down streets lined with the sick so that even his shadow might fall on them (Acts 5:15). God knows your faults, and He still called you. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, called to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

Religion paints halos around the apostles, but they were normal people who proclaimed His praises anyway. That is why the feet of those who bring good news are lovely on the mountains (Isaiah 52:7). What you hear in secret, preach on the housetops (Matthew 10:27).

He recalls evangelists who saw real miracles yet preached that anyone who drank coffee or ate sugar could not be used by God. God does not wait for us to become perfect before He uses us.

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 makes the point plain. Not many wise, mighty or noble are called. God has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base and the despised things, and the things which are not, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. Christ became for us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

It is not your great effort to make your life perfect, Dr. Hohman says; it is accepting the One who is perfect and looking to Him. He warns against what Paul calls self-imposed religion (Colossians 2:23). What you do in your own strength you can lose, but what He does in you becomes part of you. The church is meant to be a boot camp where people become willing to let God’s will be done in them (Matthew 6:10).

Two Laws: Sin and Death or the Spirit of Life

In Romans 8:2–4, what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit. Walking after the flesh, Dr. Hohman explains, is not first about actions but about thinking: I can do this myself.

He paints a picture from Israel’s history. The blessings were pronounced from Mount Gerizim and the curses from Mount Ebal (Deuteronomy 11:29). He describes Gerizim as rocky and hard to stand on, and Ebal as a round knob, as easy as a pitcher’s mound. It is easy to curse and declare problems; you have to climb up and declare blessings.

Paul is emphatic that there is no condemnation for those in Christ. Even if you feel condemned, Dr. Hohman says, you are not; cast it down and rebuke it. The table below gathers the contrasts he draws between the two laws through the whole message.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17). What Christ has done for us, the Holy Spirit does in us. Those who mock the Spirit’s work, he says, usually have all their faith in their own ability. It is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit (Zechariah 4:6).

So we must be patient with one another, including our pastors, just as Jesus was patient with His apostles. Immature believers are no reason for contempt. Pray that God gives them a revelation of His love, because love is patient and kind, does not parade itself and never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4–8). To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:5–6).

Pray for children, friends and family who have drifted, he urges: Father, break their hearts with Your love. God answers that prayer. The Holy Spirit changes people when He is welcomed as a personal and powerful guest.

Creation Waits for Mature Sons

At the root of living by the flesh is a lack of trust. Dr. Hohman tells of a 1994 Reuters report about a London accountant so afraid of doctors that he tried to operate on himself, and lost his life. A simple procedure by someone else would have helped him. He applies it spiritually: if you sow to the flesh you reap corruption, but if you sow to the Spirit you reap everlasting life (Galatians 6:8).

Paul, highly educated in the law, counted it all as rubbish for the excellence of knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8). Jesus is coming for a glorious church without spot or wrinkle (Ephesians 5:27), and that takes Him working in us.

Romans 8:19–23 says creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. Dr. Hohman contrasts two Greek words. Teknon is a newborn who needs its mother’s milk. Huios is a son who relates to his father with maturity, understanding what he does and why. Creation waits for mature sons.

Creation was subjected to futility, which he explains as worthlessness or not living up to its potential. Even sunsets and flowers are the corrupted version of what God intended. Believers groan too, waiting for the redemption of our bodies, when there will be no limits. Until then, creation is waiting for us to mature and let the Holy Spirit change us.

Christians are not meant to fit into a corrupted world. You are supposed to stand out as a light on a hill, partaking of the divine nature through the One who has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3–4). Like the apostles, we need the power that comes when the Holy Spirit comes upon us (Acts 1:8). Is He merely resident in your life, he asks, or president?

Faith in What He Already Did

Dr. Hohman quotes D. L. Moody: trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment; trust in money and you may have it taken from you; but trust in God and you will never be confounded. What matters is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).

The foundation of faith, he teaches, is not trusting what Jesus can do for us but believing what He already did. If you cannot believe what He has done, you will struggle to receive what He wants to do. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

In Galatians 2:19–21 Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” He lives by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave Himself for him. Dr. Hohman stresses the past tense: Christ loved me and gave Himself. Paul was so tired of trying to be perfect under the law that he gladly died to it.

That does not make works meaningless. Faith without works is dead (James 2:17). A body without breath is a corpse, and some people profess faith but do not possess it. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10). The action does not earn change, he says; change comes by grace, but when you are changed, people will see it.

In Galatians 3:1–9 Paul asks the foolish Galatians who had bewitched them. Foolish, Dr. Hohman explains, means lacking knowledge or failing to apply it, and bewitched means someone cast a spell on them, so watch whom you listen to. Evil company corrupts good habits (1 Corinthians 15:33).

We receive the Spirit and miracles by the hearing of faith, not by seven keys to fifteen doors. Without faith it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). He has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), by His stripes we were healed (1 Peter 2:24), and in this world we will have trouble, but be of good cheer, He has overcome the world (John 16:33).

Cain, Abel and the Mountain of Blessing

Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, so those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. Dr. Hohman once heard a Bible college president preach that Abraham’s blessings are not ours; his wife Pam kept him from walking out. Abraham’s blessings are ours, he insists.

He then reads Genesis 4:1–8. Adam began under grace, with everything provided before he was even created. After the fall, the earth would produce only by the sweat of his brow. Cain, a tiller of the ground, brought the fruit of his labor. Abel brought the firstborn of his flock. God respected Abel’s offering and not Cain’s.

Why? Dr. Hohman teaches that one offering was what Cain did, and the other was what God did. Abel was effectively saying: You gave me this lamb; I had nothing to do with it. Cain grew angry, and God warned him that sin was crouching at the door. Focus on the law empowers the devil, focus on your own strength empowers weakness, and focus on your own knowledge empowers confusion. Cain ended up killing his brother.

David chose the other path. When his brothers mocked him in the camp, he did not attack them; he called them the armies of the living God and defeated Goliath (1 Samuel 17:26). You can defeat the Goliath in your life the same way, he says, by living through the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Dr. Hohman says he has to die to himself, pray that critics receive a revelation of God’s love, and bless them. The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). God needs people whose feet stand on the mountain of blessing, and your congregation may be your living room or your workplace.

He closes in prayer, refusing to compare ourselves among ourselves (2 Corinthians 10:12) and asking God to change each person. He then invites anyone who does not know the Lord to ask forgiveness, receive the life of God in Jesus Christ, and ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Living It Out This Week

These steps from this teaching on the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus can help you put it into practice:

• Reject condemnation. When guilt rises, answer it with Romans 8:1–2 and cast it down in Jesus’ name.
• Stand on the mountain of blessing. Each day, declare God’s blessing over yourself and over others instead of rehearsing problems.
• Thank Him for what is done. Base your faith on what Jesus already did, not only on what you hope He will do.
• Pray for a revelation of love. For anyone who frustrates you, ask God to break their heart with His love.
• Make the Holy Spirit president. Invite Him daily to change you however He chooses.
• Let your faith breathe. Share God’s goodness at home or at work so your faith is possessed, not merely professed.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 From the divine exchange to Isaiah 54
• 1:00 A covenant never to be angry
• 1:56 What limits us
• 2:57 One law and one command
• 5:11 Romans 8:1–2: no condemnation
• 6:10 The imperfect apostles
• 7:09 1 Peter 2:9: a chosen generation
• 9:24 Feet on the mountains and the housetops
• 11:29 1 Corinthians 1: God chooses the weak
• 14:36 Romans 8:2–4: walking after the flesh
• 15:37 Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal
• 17:54 Two laws contrasted
• 21:01 Be patient with one another
• 24:02 Romans 8:5–6 and praying for others
• 26:09 A lack of trust
• 27:21 Romans 8:19–23: mature sons
• 34:19 You are not meant to fit in
• 36:26 Faith in what He already did
• 37:41 Galatians 2:19–21
• 40:48 Professed faith and possessed faith
• 43:34 Galatians 3: who has bewitched you?
• 49:23 Abraham’s blessings are ours
• 51:43 Genesis 4: Cain and Abel
• 58:59 Closing prayer and invitation

Law of the Spirit of Life Series

This message is part of a seven-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. Go back to the previous message or continue with the next:

• Previous: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus #1: No Condemnation in Christ
• You are here: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus #2: God Chooses Imperfect People
• Next: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus — Love, Not Law, Changes the Heart

Frequently Asked Questions

Does God’s promise never to be angry apply to everyone?

Dr. Hohman is careful here. He says the covenant of Isaiah 54 is not a blank check for everybody. It is a potential for everyone, but it belongs to those who give their lives over to God. That is why he ends the message with an invitation to receive Jesus Christ, warning that without Him a person faces eternal separation from God, and urging them to ask for forgiveness and the Holy Spirit.

How should I treat Christians who think they know more than their leaders?

Dr. Hohman compares immature believers to children who learn a little and suddenly think they know more than their parents. He says that is no reason to despise, hate or rebuke them. Love them as you would your own children, be patient, and pray that God gives them a revelation of His love. He also asks the church to be patient with its pastors, who are doing what God says, sometimes imperfectly.

Why do the trees need me to have the Holy Spirit?

Dr. Hohman reads Romans 8 as saying that all creation was subjected to futility and is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed in maturity. Until then, even sunsets, flowers and forests are the corrupted version of what God intended. So, he says, the trees need you to have the Holy Ghost and let Him work in your life, because creation’s purpose is tied to believers maturing.

Scripture References

All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:

• Romans 8:1–2 — no condemnation in Christ Jesus
• Isaiah 54:9–10 — the covenant of peace
• 1 Peter 2:9 — a chosen generation
• 1 Corinthians 1:26–31 — God chooses the weak
• Romans 8:19–23 — creation waits for the sons of God
• Galatians 2:19–21 — crucified with Christ
• Galatians 3:1–9 — received by the hearing of faith
• Genesis 4:1–8 — the offerings of Cain and Abel

How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.

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