The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 10 — Love That Tranquilizes Condemnation

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the law of love, and love leaves no room for condemnation. In this message, Dr. William P. Hohman brings together his teaching on the Great Exchange and this series on Romans 8, showing that when believers walk in love toward people, God tranquilizes the heart that condemns them and gives them fearless confidence before Him. He follows Peter from his boast and denial to the breakfast fire by the sea, where Jesus restored him without a single rebuke. This message continues from The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 8 — Receiving Love and the Greatest Commandment.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scripture behind each point (NKJV on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps to walk in love this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached at New Testament Church in Merrill, Wisconsin, just after the church’s 39th anniversary, and posted on January 14, 2025. Pastor Hohman notes that he has now been 45 years in the ministry. Before the teaching, he shares what he sensed in prayer that morning: God is going to rekindle His fire in the earth, starting in the church, and it will move people out of comfortable places into a new place with God.

Some will be lifted by that move and some offended. Then he turns to his objective: to paint a picture from Scripture, line upon line, of how the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus removes condemnation from God’s people.

No Condemnation: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus

Pastor Hohman first recaps the Great Exchange. People who do not know God’s name go from one bondage to another. Jesus came so that we could know Him and enter a covenant in which everything that pertains to life and godliness is ours. That produces confidence, which is exactly what condemnation tries to steal.

He pictures a car of nuns noticing a police car behind them and instantly wondering what they did wrong. Satan keeps pressing that feeling in, and Pastor Hohman calls it “the baby of all bondages,” because a heart in that condition opens the door to things that should never happen in a believer’s life.

The series text is Romans 8:1–4: there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, “for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” What the law could not do because of the weakness of the flesh, God did by sending His Son, so that every promise attached to keeping the law is now given to us.

Pastor Hohman teaches that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is love, because God is love. You could read “love” wherever you see “God” in Scripture. Everyone needs an atmosphere of love, needs to learn how to give love, and needs to learn how to accept it. Condemnation is what blocks that acceptance. It made Adam hide from God, and it made Peter tell Jesus to depart from him.

Condemnation is a habit for many, he adds, especially those raised in strict, rule-based religion where failure must be worked off. In Christ, all of that is done away. Believers no longer fit in the world, but they are meant to relate to the kingdom of heaven. Love, as 1 Corinthians 13:4–8 describes it, never fails, and Pastor Hohman says “love gets along in any social group,” so the feeling of not fitting in no longer has to weigh on us.

Walking in the Spirit Is Not Walking Perfectly

Pastor Hohman reminds the church that as Christ is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). That is a great deal of boldness and righteousness, not for bragging, but so that we live with Him and see our desires fulfilled. Jesus’ new commandment in John 13:34–35 is that we love one another as He has loved us, and by this all will know we are His disciples.

We do not produce that love ourselves. Walking according to the Spirit in Romans 8 does not mean doing everything perfectly. It means being confident, even when we fall short, that the Lord will perfect what concerns us and do a work no one can stop. Walking in the flesh sounds like “I failed again, give me another shot, Lord, I’ll do it.”

He tells two stories. At a building dedication for a church of four or five hundred people, he stained their brand-new blue altar carpet with red food coloring and thought he would just preach until everyone went home. Instead, everyone gave their lives to Jesus, and he prayed in a healing line until four in the morning.

Later the city demanded $10,000 a year in fire hydrant rent on the church’s downtown building. On a flight to Guadeloupe in 2000, he showed Pam the letter and they simply prayed, “Father, you got to do something about this.” Back home, a buyer from Milwaukee purchased the building for $89,000, which put new furnaces in the school.

That, Pastor Hohman says, is walking in the Spirit. Walking in the flesh tries to manipulate the outcome and then sweats and worries, which is bondage. Comparing ourselves among ourselves is not wise (2 Corinthians 10:12). Love, not emotion, is the gauge.

God’s Love Made Complete in Us

Next he turns to 1 John 4:9–12. God showed His love by sending His one and only Son so that we might live through Him. Pastor Hohman explains that God did not create because He was lonely. He created because He is love, and love must have an object to express itself. He showed it in creating Adam, showed it again in sending His Son after the fall, and shows it again in every new creation.

Since God so loved us, John writes, we ought to love one another, and when we do, His love is made complete in us. Pastor Hohman describes that completed love as four-dimensional, lifting us above what we see in a three-dimensional world, while incomplete love stays bound to fear.

John 3:17–18 takes condemnation off the table: God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, and whoever believes in Him is not condemned. Pastor Hohman asks, are you a believer? Then you are not condemned, even if you feel condemned. A feeling does not change what God has declared.

He pairs this with Romans 5:17: those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life. A king does not even carry money, because everything is at his disposal. Many new believers think they must now do something special to please God and feel better about themselves. Pastor Hohman calls that the wrong answer. Believe in what He has done and be confident He will finish what He started in you.

Love Tranquilizes a Condemning Heart

The heart of the message is 1 John 3:18–24. Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth, and by this we will assure our hearts before Him. Pastor Hohman’s application is simple: just start walking in love. When anyone comes into your sphere, ask the Lord how you can make that person’s life better, because in His presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11), and that should be true in ours too.

Verse 20 says that if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart. Verses 21–22 add that if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God and receive whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments. Pastor Hohman calls this a key to the abundant life, and he points out that the commandment now is to believe on the name of Jesus and to love one another. As Proverbs 23:7 says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

He then reads Kenneth Wuest’s expanded translation, where God’s presence “shall tranquilize our hearts” in whatever they condemn us. To tranquilize means to make someone calm, even unconscious. As you walk in love, your heart becomes unconscious to condemnation, like rain running off a treated windshield without the wipers.

Wuest also speaks of keeping God’s commandments “with solicitous care,” which Pastor Hohman explains as concern for the welfare of others and a willingness to serve them. A person with God’s love in them cannot sit in church and never help. Every service, he says, is a practice arena for the wedding in heaven, so worship should feel like a joyful wedding, not a somber wake.

The result is fearless confidence toward God, and peace flourishes once condemnation leaves. God never leaves us, but we abide in Him by walking in love, being patient, kind and tenderhearted. When the disciples argued about who was greatest (Luke 22:24–27), Jesus answered that greatness is found in the one who serves.

God also hates six things, yes seven (Proverbs 6:16–19). Love can hate, Pastor Hohman says, and what God hates is whatever keeps people from receiving His love. Those who walk in love want others to have more, and that love grows over time.

Peter’s Denial and the Love That Never Rebuked Him

To paint the picture, Pastor Hohman walks through Peter’s story across the Gospels. In Luke 22:31–34, Jesus tells Simon that Satan has asked to sift him as wheat, but He has prayed that his faith will not fail. Peter insists he is ready to go to prison and to death. Jesus answers that the rooster will not crow before Peter denies Him three times.

In the garden, Peter draws his sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus, the high priest’s servant (John 18:10–11). Jesus tells him to put the sword away and heals the ear. Earlier, when Peter tried to stop Jesus from going to the cross, Jesus said, “Get behind Me, Satan” (Matthew 16:23). Fallen man does everything in his own strength. Jesus’ way, Pastor Hohman says, is “I’m going to do what the Father told me to do and trust Him.”

Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled (Matthew 26:56). Peter followed at a distance and, by a fire in the courtyard, denied Jesus three times. The rooster crowed, the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:54–62). Pastor Hohman asks whether Peter felt condemned at that moment. He had spent his life trying to make things happen his way.

After the resurrection, the angel told the women in Mark 16:1–7 to tell the disciples and Peter that Jesus was going before them to Galilee. Pastor Hohman remembers being the boy always called to the principal’s office, and he imagines Peter bracing for a tongue-lashing. Instead, in John 20:18–22, Jesus stands among them, says “Peace be with you,” sends them as the Father sent Him, and breathes on them to receive the Holy Spirit.

Scripture never records Jesus rebuking Peter for the denial. Pastor Hohman links this to Isaiah 54:7–10, which follows Isaiah 53, where the Servant bears our iniquity, not only the sin but its penalty, guilt and condemnation. As God swore the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, He has sworn not to be angry with us nor rebuke us. His covenant of peace will not be removed.

Do You Love Me? Breakfast by the Sea

In John 21:1–8, Peter goes fishing instead of doing the mission. They catch nothing all night, just as on the day Peter first met Jesus. A Man on the shore tells them to cast the net on the right side, and the catch is too large to haul in. When John says it is the Lord, Peter throws himself into the sea. The first time he left his nets; this time he leaves the boat.

Jesus has a fire burning and serves them breakfast. Then, in John 21:15–19, He questions Peter three times. Pastor Hohman explains that two different Greek words for love are used, and he traces how the exchange unfolds:

Three questions for three denials, and no rebuke. Jesus meets Peter where he is. Then He tells Peter that one day he will stretch out his hands and be led where he does not wish, signifying the death by which he would glorify God. Jesus was fine with Peter not being there yet, and Pastor Hohman notes that Peter was later crucified upside down.

The lesson: start out, and when you mess up, start out again. Pastor Hohman tells stories of his own mistakes because we are not perfect people, but we serve a perfect God whose name is love. 1 John 3:16–18 defines real love as Jesus laying down His life for us, and asks where the love of God is in someone who sees a brother in need and shuts up his heart.

That is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus at work: as we walk in love, condemnation loses its grip and we keep doing what we were told to do.

Living Free From Condemnation This Week

Pastor Hohman closes with communion from Hebrews 4:14–16: we have a High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses, so we come boldly to the throne of grace. Condemnation, he warns, will make you hide from God, tell God to get away, or keep you from doing what He asked. Here are practical steps from the message:

• Refuse the feeling. If you believe in Jesus, you are not under condemnation, even when you feel it. Let His Word outrank the emotion.
• Ask how to make someone better. When a person enters your sphere, ask the Lord how you can make their life better, and then act on it.
• Practice love at church. Treat every service as the practice arena for loving people, where mistakes are safe and joy is expected.
• Start again after you fail. Like Peter, get back to what Jesus told you to do instead of retreating to your old boat.
• Give thanks for what you have. Take communion and name what you are thankful for, as the Hohman family did with crackers and water.
• Serve to be great. Look for one inconvenient way to help someone this week, without becoming an enabler.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Fasting and discipline
• 1:07 39 years of New Testament Church
• 4:31 God will rekindle His fire in the earth
• 7:47 Recap of the Great Exchange
• 10:10 Romans 8:1–4: no condemnation
• 12:26 God is love; condemnation makes us hide
• 16:55 John 13: love one another as I have loved you
• 17:57 The red food coloring on the altar carpet
• 18:56 The fire hydrant rent and the building sale
• 23:58 1 John 4: how God showed His love
• 26:08 John 3:17–18: not condemned
• 29:44 1 John 3: love in deed and in truth
• 34:06 Wuest’s translation: tranquilize our hearts
• 37:33 Fearless confidence and solicitous care
• 43:29 Who is the greatest?
• 47:19 Luke 22: Satan has asked for you
• 50:29 Peter’s sword and Malchus’ ear
• 52:38 Peter’s three denials
• 54:47 Tell His disciples and Peter
• 59:59 Isaiah 54: no anger, no rebuke
• 1:04:29 John 21: fishing again
• 1:08:35 Do you love Me? Agape and phileo
• 1:15:37 1 John 3:16–18: love that acts
• 1:18:47 Hebrews 4 and communion

Law of the Spirit of Life Series

This message is part of a teaching series at NTC Ministries. Start from the beginning or go back one message:

• First message: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus #1: No Condemnation in Christ
• Previous: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 8 — Receiving Love and the Greatest Commandment
• You are here: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 10 — Love That Tranquilizes Condemnation

Frequently Asked Questions

Does walking in love mean I have to let people take advantage of me?

No. Pastor Hohman says some people are like black holes who drain the life out of you, and you are still called to love and help them. But he is clear that you do not become an enabler or simply sympathize while someone takes and takes and does nothing. God will lead you in how to help. Everyone has a breaking point, he admits, so do not be condemned by it; just keep applying yourself to love.

What does God’s fire coming to the earth have to do with this message?

Pastor Hohman shared it as something the Lord spoke to him in prayer that morning. He believes God will rekindle His fire, starting in the church, and that it will displace people from where they have been comfortable into a new place with God. He closed the service praying for that fire to burn.

Why did the Hohman family take communion with crackers and water?

After moving to Merrill in 1985 having given away everything they owned, the family came to a point where they had nothing to eat. Pam had some crackers, so each day they took communion with crackers and water and asked one another what they were thankful for. Pastor Hohman says focusing on what they had rather than what they lacked tranquilized their hearts, and God came through for them in a big way.

Scripture References

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

• Romans 8:1–4 — no condemnation in Christ Jesus
• 1 John 3:18–24 — assuring our hearts before Him
• 1 John 4:9–12 — God’s love made complete in us
• John 3:17–18 — not sent to condemn
• John 13:34–35 — the new commandment
• Luke 22:54–62 — Peter’s denial
• Isaiah 54:7–10 — the covenant of peace
• John 21:15–19 — do you love Me?
• Hebrews 4:14–16 — come boldly to the throne of grace

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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