The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus — Love, Not Law, Changes the Heart

The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the one law of God’s kingdom: the law of love that frees us from the law of sin and death and lets the Holy Spirit change us from the inside. In this message, Dr. William P. Hohman explains why rules can guide behavior but never change a heart, why God chooses flawed people on purpose, and how the Samaritan woman at the well shows what love does to a life. It continues from The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus #2: God Chooses Imperfect People.

Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for living by the Spirit this week.

Sermon at a Glance

This message, posted in November 2024, is part of a series at NTC Ministries that grew out of an earlier study of Isaiah 52 to 54, which Pastor Hohman calls the divine exchange: the problem of man, the cure God sent, and the covenant He built. It runs about 63 minutes and ends with a prayer of salvation.

Its message is that faith does not grow through perfection, education or achievement, but through a relationship with God built on His love. The law exposes our weakness; the Spirit changes our hearts.

Redeemed From Everything, Created and Born of Love

Pastor Hohman recaps the divine exchange. In Isaiah, God tells His people they had sold themselves into bondage for nothing, and He would redeem them without money (Isaiah 52:3). Their problem was that they did not know Him.

Jesus took everything on Himself. The Hebrew word avon, he explains, means not just the sin but its penalty, punishment and judgment. Spiritually, physically, financially, materially and mentally, Jesus bore it all, so much that He no longer looked human.

God created man in love. He formed Adam from the dust, and with love He took a rib from Adam’s side and handcrafted Eve. When Adam sinned, the whole earth fell under a curse. Creation is held in futility, unable to fulfill its purpose, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:19–21). Our full redemption comes when this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:53).

Adam never had to ask God for anything, because everything had been given to him. When God sent Moses to Israel, He told him to say that I AM had sent him (Exodus 3:14). Yet Israel kept complaining, and the harder their hearts grew toward God, the more law was placed on them.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16–17). However we were born into this world, he says, everyone who is born again is born of pure love, for love, to pour out love. One word sums up God: love.

God Uses Imperfect People

The series text is Romans 8:1–2: there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life has made us free from the law of sin and death. You might be condemning yourself, Pastor Hohman says, but you are not condemned, so stop it.

The law was holy and just, but the Pharisees used it to control others. There is no perfect church anywhere in the New Testament or today. God uses marred, struggling and foolish people, people going through weakness, bitterness and strife. His disciples had anger problems; Abraham, the father of faith, lied about his wife to save his own life.

Faith, he insists, does not come from perfection. Faith comes through a relationship with God through His love. You are a chosen people, a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). God has chosen the foolish and weak things of the world so that he who glories should glory in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:26–31).

He illustrates this from his years in construction. Waiting on a roof about 250 feet up for delayed trucks, he shared his testimony as a former drug addict and alcoholic for about an hour. Some walked away, but one large, silent man stayed by his side. In the elevator the man finally spoke: that if God did this with him, there was hope for him too. Pastor Hohman says he is confident the man gave his life to Jesus.

The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus vs. the Law of Sin

Returning to Romans 8:2–4, Pastor Hohman explains that what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His Son, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit. We are the weakness of the law. Israel had 613 laws, not just ten, and no one could keep them. Jesus came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), and He did, declaring “It is finished” on the cross (John 19:30).

Rules have a place. Parents must still tell a child not to run onto the freeway. But rules never change a child. If the heart does not change, the child grows up rebelling against the rule and against you. That is why the apostles refused to put on the church a yoke their fathers could not bear (Acts 15:10). The kingdom of heaven has one law, the law of the spirit of life, and one command: love one another as I have loved you (John 13:34).

Many people never receive miracles, Pastor Hohman says, because pride keeps them from admitting they need one. To have miracles from God, you have to admit you need a miracle. He receives them again and again, not by law but by the love of God.

When people tell him they cannot be healed because they have not been living their best, he answers that this has nothing to do with it. In Matthew 8:16, many who were sick and demon-possessed were brought to Jesus and He healed them all. There were liars and thieves in that crowd, and no one was righteous yet. It is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit (Zechariah 4:6).

Living by the law produces pride. He tells of two hikers facing a grizzly bear: one says he does not have to outrun the bear, only his friend. That, he says, is what the law does in people. It also shows up in people who refuse correction or think they are too good for their job, though Peter told servants to submit even to harsh masters (1 Peter 2:18).

The cross was the worst thing that ever happened to a man and the best thing that ever happened to the world, because change became available. If the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He will give life to your mortal body (Romans 8:11). The Holy Spirit, he says, governs us now, fulfilling in us what Jesus did for us.

Trust in the Lord and Do Good

Pastor Hohman reads Psalm 37:3–5: trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, commit your way to Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Walking by the Spirit does not mean we stop trying to be good. God still wants us holy. We work together with Him, and love is the key, including love for our enemies.

If your children have wandered, he says, harping on them will not change them, but faith in the Holy Spirit can. He tells how, overdosed on drugs in an apartment in San Diego with his parents not knowing where he was, he knew that if he closed his eyes he would die. He says Jesus sat with him and told him he would be okay and that He would use him around the world. That presence changed his heart.

He compares himself to Lazarus. What good thing did Lazarus do to be raised? Nothing; he was dead. Jesus called him out and told them to loose him and let him go (John 11:43–44). Testimonies matter, because they tell others God will do it for them too.

God does not withhold. If He did not spare His own Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things (Romans 8:32)? Paul even told the church that all things were theirs, including himself and Apollos (1 Corinthians 3:21–22). The fivefold ministry is a gift to the church (Ephesians 4:11), and we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).

The Hebrew word for man, adam, comes from adamah, earth, he explains. A neglected field keeps producing weeds, but cleared, tilled and planted with good seed it produces a garden. We are born again of incorruptible seed, the word of God (1 Peter 1:23). Tend it and expect the Holy Spirit to bring up fruit: easier to be around, eager to bring peace, for blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9). It is God’s goodness that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4).

Ministers of the New Covenant, Not the Letter

Pastor Hohman jokes that as a newlywed renter he thought someone else should pay the last month’s rent. People think the same way spiritually. But 2 Corinthians 3:4–6 says our sufficiency is from God, who made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.

We are not only receivers of grace; we are ministers of it. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news and proclaim peace (Isaiah 52:7). Yet ministers who bring joy and blessing are often the most criticized by those who insist people must work for it.

2 Corinthians 3:7–9 calls the old covenant the ministry of death. It came with such glory that Israel could not look at Moses’ face. Yet if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds it much more. That is why Paul asked the Galatians who had bewitched them: having begun in the Spirit, were they now being made perfect by the flesh (Galatians 3:1–3)?

All our effort will not change us, but God can remove things in an instant. He did that for Pastor Hohman, he says, taking away every desire for drugs and drink. Galatians 5:1–6 tells us to stand fast in the liberty by which Christ made us free. Anyone who takes on circumcision to be justified becomes a debtor to keep the whole law. In Christ, nothing avails except faith working through love.

So the law of the Spirit of life and the new commandment of love are the same thing, and James calls it the royal law (James 2:8). We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). Like first love coming alive in a young heart, he says, giving your life to Christ changes you. How do you know you are born again? Your heart is filled with God’s love.

The Woman at the Well: Love Changes a Life

The first person to whom Jesus openly declared He was the Messiah was a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4:7–26). Pastor Hohman notes the red flags. Women drew water in the morning, yet she came at noon, the hottest part of the day, apparently shut out from the other women. She was a woman and a Samaritan, and Jews kept their distance from both.

He recalls the woman with the issue of blood, whom the law counted unclean. She touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and, instead of defiling Him, was healed (Mark 5:25–34). Jesus came to give life, and life more abundantly (John 10:10).

Jesus told her that if she knew the gift of God and who was asking, she would ask Him for living water. She asked for it, and He told her to call her husband. She had had five husbands, and the man she lived with now was not her husband. She called Him a prophet and asked where to worship. Jesus said God is spirit and seeks those who worship in spirit and truth, and then told her plainly that He was the Messiah.

Pastor Hohman then shares what church tradition records about her. He says that at baptism she was named Photina, meaning illumination or light. He relates that she brought her whole town to Jesus, was counted among the apostles of the early church, established many churches, and brought her sisters and brother to Christ, some of whom were martyred. He says that when Nero sent his daughter to talk her out of her faith, his daughter and a hundred of her servants came to Christ instead and gave their gold to the poor.

He reads John Chrysostom’s comment that she did what the apostles did: they left their nets, and she, of her own accord, left her water pot. When God changes us, he says, households, cities and even countries change.

Pastor Hohman says he has gone into Muslim countries and gang areas with just a Bible, sharing Jesus without fear, because perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Now is the acceptable time; redeem the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16).

Living by the Spirit This Week

The message ends with an invitation to have your own real faith, not one inherited from your parents. Practical steps from the sermon:

• Stop condemning yourself. When you fall short, remember Romans 8:1: you are not condemned, so do not act as if you were.
• Admit what you need. Tell God plainly where you need a miracle instead of hiding behind pride.
• Trust the Spirit with people you love. Pray in faith for a wandering child or friend rather than harping on them.
• Tell your story. Share what God has done for you; someone may decide there is hope for them too.
• Tend the seed. Feed on God’s faithfulness through the Word so the good seed in you produces good fruit.
• Bring peace. Choose one relationship this week where you will be the peacemaker instead of proving you are better.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 Recap of the divine exchange in Isaiah 52–54
• 1:07 Avon: Jesus took the sin and its penalty
• 3:28 Creation held in futility
• 5:51 I AM: the breath that gives everything
• 8:20 Born again of pure love; Romans 8:1–2
• 10:45 No perfect church; God uses flawed people
• 12:08 Faith comes through relationship, not achievement
• 14:25 Testimony on the construction site
• 17:21 Romans 8:2–4 and the 613 laws
• 19:24 Rules cannot change a heart
• 21:24 Admit you need a miracle
• 23:42 Matthew 8: He healed them all
• 25:57 The two hikers and the grizzly bear
• 28:04 The Spirit who raised Jesus
• 29:28 Psalm 37: trust in the Lord and do good
• 32:02 Overdosed in San Diego; Lazarus raised
• 34:31 Delight yourself in the Lord; all things are yours
• 36:59 Adam and adamah: good seed in good ground
• 40:43 2 Corinthians 3: ministers of the new covenant
• 44:08 The ministry of condemnation and of righteousness
• 45:20 Galatians 5: faith working through love
• 49:01 The woman at the well
• 54:07 The tradition of Photina
• 59:35 Without fear; now is the acceptable time
• 1:01:10 Prayer of salvation

Law of the Spirit of Life Series

This message is part of a seven-part teaching series at NTC Ministries. 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 #2: God Chooses Imperfect People
• You are here: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus — Love, Not Law, Changes the Heart
• Next: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus #4: Gifts That Work by Love

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this teaching mean Christians should ignore rules?

No. Pastor Hohman says rules and regulations bring common sense, and parents still need them with their children. His point is that rules alone never change anyone. Only a changed heart does, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit. He also stresses Psalm 37:3: trust in the Lord and do good. God still wants us holy, and we work together with Him.

Do I have to be living right before God will heal me?

Pastor Hohman answers no. He points to Matthew 8:16, where Jesus healed everyone who was brought to Him, though the crowd included liars, thieves and people with anger problems. No one was righteous yet. What holds many people back, he says, is pride that will not admit the need for a miracle. Healing comes by God’s Spirit and love, not by our performance.

How can I tell whether I am really born again?

According to this message, the evidence is love. Pastor Hohman says that being born again means being born of pure love, for love, to pour out love. He asks a simple question: is your heart filled with God’s love? Just as first love changes a young person from the inside, giving your life to Christ brings a real change, because God is love.

Scripture References

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

• Romans 8:1–2 — no condemnation
• Romans 8:2–4 — what the law could not do
• 1 Corinthians 1:26–31 — God chooses the weak
• Psalm 37:3–5 — trust in the Lord and do good
• 2 Corinthians 3:4–6 — the Spirit gives life
• 2 Corinthians 3:7–9 — the ministry of righteousness
• Galatians 5:1–6 — faith working through love
• John 4:7–26 — the woman at the well

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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