The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 8 — Receiving Love and the Greatest Commandment

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus comes down to receiving the love of God and then giving it away. In this eighth message of the series, the pastor teaches that healing, provision and protection all flow from who God is, because God is love, and that faith only works in an atmosphere of love. He then walks through Mark 12, where a scribe asks Jesus which commandment is the greatest commandment, and shows why loving God and loving your neighbor sum up the whole law.

This teaching continues from The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 6 — Love Is the Royal Law. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, every Scripture linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway, a timestamped outline and practical steps for the week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached at NTC Ministries in the last days of 2024, shortly after a Christmas Day service, and posted on January 2, 2025. It runs about 75 minutes and closes with a blessing over the year ahead.

The first half deals with receiving the love of God without condemning yourself. The second half follows the questions put to Jesus in Mark 12 and lands on the greatest commandment, which he presents as the practical shape of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. His recurring picture is a light bulb: it only shines when current comes in on one line and goes out on another.

God Is Love, and Faith Works by Love

The pastor begins with the names by which God reveals what He does: the Lord who heals, the Lord who provides, the Lord who defends. Behind all of them is what God is. 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16 both say that God is love, so every healing, every provision and every defense comes because He is love.

Galatians 5:6 says that in Christ the ceremonial things of the law mean nothing, but faith working through love does. We were created, he says, to live in an environment of love in the presence of God. Love, he adds, does not mean always getting your way; many hurt feelings are really about that.

A mature believer measures a good day differently. Whatever happens, no weapon formed against him will prosper and all things work together for his good. That confidence, the pastor says, is love at work, and it is what it means for faith to work by love: becoming more like God.

He then looks at Adam, who was given dominion over the works of God’s hands and handed it to Satan. God did not give up. He let His love be expressed again: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). Meanwhile all of creation is held in futility, which he defines as being incapable of fulfilling its function, until the sons of God are revealed (Romans 8:19–21).

The sons of God are revealed, he says, when we grow up and shake off the junk that holds us in bondage, oppression and depression, and declare that we are children of almighty God, kings and priests. No evil shall befall you (Psalm 91:10). Satan did not take Adam’s dominion because he was greater; Adam let it happen. It is the love of God that transforms us.

The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus: One Law, One Commandment

The pastor says we have to build an atmosphere of love, because faith works by love. You cannot be grumpy and complaining all the time and expect life to get better. Jesus said freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8). He once ran out of a restaurant to find a mother’s lost little boy, and when she thanked him he said, “Why not? I love you.”

He recalls the woman who broke the alabaster flask and poured costly oil on Jesus in Simon the leper’s house (Matthew 26:6–13). Judas and others were angry, but she saw the gift Jesus is. What Jesus wants is a commitment to receive. David asked what he could render to the Lord, and answered that he would take up the cup of salvation (Psalm 116:12–13).

Then comes the central text, Romans 8:2–4: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Walking after the flesh, he says, is not only sinning. It is trying to build a great life by your own effort, when anything not of faith is sin.

So the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is receiving the love of God and expecting Him to do what He said. The one commandment is the new commandment of John 13:34–35: love one another as I have loved you. Like the light bulb, current must come in and go out. James 2:8–9 calls this the royal law, love your neighbor as yourself, and warns that partiality is sin.

Growth takes time, so be patient with yourself and with others, confident that He who began a good work will complete it (Philippians 1:6). Pray that God opens your enemies’ eyes to His love, and pray that He opens yours, so you see the good in people. You are not the standard, he says; God is, and God is love.

No Condemnation in Christ

Everyone, the pastor says, has a breaking point. When you fail, do not condemn yourself. Say, “Lord, I’m confident you’re going to accomplish this in me.” The verse before the central text is Romans 8:1: there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. If you condemn yourself, God is not condemning you. It is just a feeling and an emotion you have to deal with.

Living by feelings, he argues, is foolish. Feeling condemned does not make you condemned. You have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, and the more confident you are in that, the more the fruit of righteousness grows. One day you notice you have not done or said a certain thing in six months, and it was not your great effort; you simply lived in love.

Many educated people are stuck because they never received the love of God and think they are nothing. Christians should never condemn themselves or anyone else. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17). The standard is Jesus, who said that seeing Him is seeing the Father.

How do you measure whether you are doing well? Not by comparing yourself with others. 2 Corinthians 10:12 says that those who measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves among themselves are not wise. Instead of telling someone they are not trying hard enough, point them to what the Lord is doing in them. That is why Jesus invites all who labor and are heavy laden to come to Him for rest (Matthew 11:28).

Four Groups and Their Traps in Mark 12

To set up the greatest commandment, the pastor describes the four main religious groups in Jesus’ day. Each tried to get the people to listen only to them, and when crowds began following Jesus, they tried to discredit Him publicly. Here is how he summarizes them:

Before the questions, Jesus told the parable of the vineyard owner whose tenants killed the servants sent to collect his share (Mark 12:1–12). The leaders knew He spoke about them and wanted to seize Him, but they feared the people. Their questions were verbal traps, and Jesus knew their hypocrisy.

The Pharisees and Herodians asked whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus asked whose image was on the denarius and answered, render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s (Mark 12:13–17). The pastor’s summary is that you give to God what is His and you also pay your taxes.

The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, asked whose wife a woman married to seven brothers would be in the resurrection (Mark 12:18–27). Jesus answered that they knew neither the Scriptures nor the power of God, and proved the resurrection from the books of Moses they accepted: God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not of the dead but of the living.

The Greatest Commandment

The scribe had watched all of this and saw that Jesus simply told the truth. In that day the groups argued over the greatest commandment. Some said sacrifice, because it atoned for sin; others said circumcision, because it showed dedication to God. As scholar, teacher and attorney, the scribe needed a real answer to the greatest commandment question, and he alone was not trying to trap Jesus.

In Mark 12:28–34, Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4–5: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. The scribe agreed that this is more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices, and Jesus told him he was not far from the kingdom of God.

The Lord is one, the pastor says. The nations around Israel had a god for fishing, a god for harvest, a god for health and a god for marriage. We have one God who handles everything. He is our God, personally: our Shepherd, healer, provider, protector and comforter. You do not have to stand on your head to be healed or jump through hoops to prosper. There is no obligation other than to accept the love of God.

He then explains each part of the greatest commandment using the words he gives from the Greek:

• Heart (kardia): the center or seat of your life, who you really are, including your passions and emotions.
• Soul (psyche): the seat of your feelings, desires, affections and aversions.
• Mind: the part of a human being that thinks, imagines and understands.
• Strength (ischus): your ability to work and put effort into accomplishing things.

Because the soul holds our affections, he points to Colossians 3:1–3: seek those things which are above and set your mind on things above, because your life is hidden with Christ in God. Do that, he says, and you build an atmosphere of love where faith begins to work in a phenomenal way.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

The scribe only asked for the greatest commandment, but Jesus added the second, because faith does not work if you say you love God and never lift a finger to serve. In Matthew 22:39–40, all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. The pastor’s paraphrase: if we just walk in love, all the righteousness those laws offered is completed in us because we are in Christ.

Loving God can feel abstract, so the greatest commandment comes with a hands-on partner: helping others. 1 John 4:7–8 says love is of God, and whoever does not love does not know God. 1 John 4:9–12 says God showed His love by sending His Son, and if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.

There is a catch in loving your neighbor as yourself. People who have not received the love of God do not love themselves much, and they vent on others. When a young businessperson he blessed over coffee wished they lived near his church, he told them to get into the Bible and see themselves the way God sees them.

He shares how God provided for the ministry. A bank had to sell a building appraised at about $89,000 and accepted his offer of $29,000. Later the city planned a $10,000 yearly charge on it. He and Pam prayed simply that God would handle it, and on their return an investment firm called wanting the building. He insisted on showing the buyer every flaw, and sold it for the full $89,000, which paid for new furnaces and upgrades.

He also gave away his treasured 1969 Mustang Fastback to a pastor the Lord pointed out, first paying $1,000 to repair it. Later he gave away another car, and God moved a new believer to give him a better one. That is the love of God flowing through. A light cannot keep current coming in without letting it flow out. That is why it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).

Living the Love of God This Week

The pastor closes by asking the church to labor to enter God’s rest by walking in the love of God toward others. Here are practical steps drawn from the message:

• Receive before you give. Let God prove His love to you each day, like David taking up the cup of salvation, and the love you have to give will grow.
• Refuse self-condemnation. When you fail, declare that you are the righteousness of God in Christ and that He will complete His work in you.
• Stop comparing. Measure your progress by Christ, not by other people, and point others to what God is doing in them.
• Pray open eyes. Ask God to open your enemies’ eyes to His love, and to open yours to the good in them.
• Love with all four. Give God your passions, your affections, your thinking and your effort, and set your mind on things above.
• Serve someone. Turn love for God into action by helping a neighbor, because love expressed by conduct is how we show we know God.

Walking in the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is that simple: receive, then give. He prays that the church would grow and increase in the new year, holding to the promise of Ephesians 3:20 that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 God is love: 1 John 4 and Galatians 5:6
• 1:13 Love does not mean getting your way
• 2:20 Adam gives away dominion; God so loved the world
• 3:21 Creation held in futility
• 6:59 Freely you receive, freely you give
• 8:17 The alabaster flask and the cup of salvation
• 9:29 Romans 8:2-4: walking after the Spirit
• 12:48 One law and one commandment: John 13:34-35
• 14:00 The royal law: James 2:8-9
• 15:20 There is no condemnation
• 19:27 Do not measure yourself by others
• 23:28 Four groups in Jesus’ day
• 29:43 Verbal traps and the vineyard parable
• 32:06 Render to Caesar: Mark 12:13-17
• 33:13 The Sadducees and the resurrection
• 38:28 The scribe and the greatest commandment
• 40:58 Mark 12:28-34: the Lord is one
• 43:02 One God for every need
• 49:52 Heart, soul, mind and strength
• 54:49 The bookstore building story
• 1:03:42 All the Law and the Prophets: Matthew 22
• 1:06:16 Giving away the Mustang
• 1:10:23 More blessed to give than to receive
• 1:13:46 Closing prayer and blessing

Law of the Spirit of Life Series

This message is part of a series at NTC Ministries on Romans 8:2. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• 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 6 — Love Is the Royal Law
• You are here: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 8 — Receiving Love and the Greatest Commandment
• Next: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 10 — Love That Tranquilizes Condemnation

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to walk after the flesh?

The pastor says it is not only about committing obvious sins. Walking after the flesh is trying to accomplish some great feat or build a great life by your own effort. You could not do that before Christ, and you gave your life to Him so that He would do it. Walking after the Spirit means letting the Holy Spirit work, thanking God for what He is doing in you, and expecting and accepting His gift.

Why does he say feelings cannot decide whether I am condemned?

He points out that people readily agree it is foolish to live by feelings in other areas of life, yet many believers decide they are condemned simply because they feel condemned. Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Condemnation, he says, is just an emotion to deal with, and you have to convince yourself that God did what He said: He made you righteous.

Why did Jesus add a second commandment when He was asked for only one?

The scribe asked only which commandment was greatest. The pastor teaches that Jesus added love for your neighbor because loving others is as important as loving God. Your faith will not work if you say you love God but never lift a finger to serve. Since we cannot touch God physically, helping others is the hands-on way our love for Him is expressed.

Scripture References

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

• Romans 8:2–4 and Romans 8:1 — free from the law of sin and death, no condemnation
• Mark 12:28–34 — the greatest commandment
• Deuteronomy 6:4–5 — the Lord our God, the Lord is one
• John 13:34–35 — a new commandment
• James 2:8–9 — the royal law
• Galatians 5:6 — faith working through love
• 2 Corinthians 10:12 — not comparing ourselves among ourselves
• Matthew 22:39–40 — the Law and the Prophets hang on two commandments
• 1 John 4:7–8 — love is of God

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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