How Love Fulfills the Law
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Instructions
Instructions
Will you take your Bible and turn to Romans 13:8–10? Please search the Scriptures with us. Don’t be afraid to use your index.
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Capture
Capture
The Christian life exists in a tension.
On one side, you have the law—rules, commands, God’s unyielding standards.
On the other, love—grace, mercy, gospel freedom.
For many, these feel like enemies.
Either you're a person of truth or you're a person of grace.
Significance
Significance
Getting this relationship wrong is one of the most dangerous errors in the Christian life.
Context
Context
In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul has just addressed civic debts—taxes owed to government, honor owed to authority. These are debts you can settle. But in verse 8, Paul presents one debt that sanctification will never cancel: the perpetual obligation of love that follows you from conversion to glory.
The Question
The Question
What is the proper relationship between law and love? Can a Christian be both free from the law and called to fulfill it?
The answer lies in understanding this debt.
Bible Verse
Bible Verse
8 Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Explanation
Explanation
In these verses, Paul shows us this perpetual debt of love, and gives us a divine logic that protects us.
He establishes two critical truths about how love and law relate.
John Stott captured the tension perfectly.
Take-Home Truth
Take-Home Truth
"Love and law need each other." —John Stott
"Love and law need each other." —John Stott
Every bill can be paid in full.
But love is a permanent obligation.
The mature saint isn't one who says, "I've loved enough," but one who says, "I still owe more."
Matthew Henry said it's "a debt that must be always in the paying, and yet always owing."
When Paul says "the one who loves another has fulfilled the law," his grammar reveals this mystery.
That verb—peplērōken—is in the perfect tense, denoting a settled state with ongoing results.
The debt of love places you in continuous law-fulfillment.
The question is: why is love and law forever bound?
Truth #1: “Love Needs Law for Its Direction.”
Truth #1: “Love Needs Law for Its Direction.”
The word "fulfillment" here is plērōma—to fill up, to complete, to bring to its intended goal.
Think of it this way:
A balloon without air is just limp rubber, collapsing in on itself.
Air without a balloon is formless—expanding in every direction.
But when the two come together, something beautiful happens: the balloon gives the air shape, and the air gives the balloon fullness.
This is law and love.
The law gives love its shape.
Love is not formless sentiment; it has contours, boundaries, specific expressions.
Without the law's structure, love becomes vague, sentimental, shapeless as air.
That’s why in verse 9, Paul lists specific commands—
9 The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.
These aren't arbitrary restrictions; they reveal what genuine love looks like.
Love protects life, so you don't murder.
Love preserves purity, so you don't commit adultery.
Love guards property, so you don't steal.
Love refuses envy, so you don't covet.
Again, the commandments give love its shape.
Love without law says, "I feel loving, therefore I am loving."
Love with law says, "God defines what love looks like, and I conform."
Paul then quotes the great summary: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
This isn't a command to love yourself more; it's recognition of reality.
You naturally seek your own good, protect your own interests, provide for your own needs.
God says: take that same energy and direct it toward your neighbor.
Paul then concludes:
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.
Notice what Paul has done.
He's not setting love against the law or replacing the law with love.
These specific commands describe what true love looks like.
Love is the picture; the commandments are the pixels making up the picture.
Augustine said: "Love and do as you please. A person motivated by pure love is driven by the Spirit of God and will do what pleases God in all things."
All of this helps us understand the beautiful tension in our relationship to God’s law.
The Apostle John speaks of this in 1 John 2:7-8 .
7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old command that you have had from the beginning. The old command is the word you have heard.
8 Yet I am writing you a new command, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
5 So now I ask you, dear lady—not as if I were writing you a new command, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.
John calls Christ's command to love both an "old command" and a "new command."
How can it be both?
Because while we are not under the law of Moses, we are under the law of Christ.
14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.
2 Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
In Paul’s letters, He draws a striking contrast between two kinds of debt.
14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
In Paul’s letters, He draws a striking contrast between two kinds of debt.
In Colossians 2, the "certificate of debt" is the law's record of condemnation—canceled once and for all by Christ's death.
Yet in Romans, the "debt of love" remains, not as a burden but as the fulfillment of the law, empowered by Christ's life within us.
Grace cancels one kind of debt to make room for another—not a debt of guilt, but a debt of gratitude.
That’s why Paul could say:
20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews; to those under the law, like one under the law—though I myself am not under the law—to win those under the law.
21 To those who are without the law, like one without the law—though I am not without God’s law but under the law of Christ—to win those without the law.
The righteous heart of God’s law hasn’t vanished (it's old), but our relationship to it and our power to fulfill it have been gloriously transformed in Christ (it's new).
Think of our resurrected Lord. After He rose, He was absolutely the same crucified Savior—He still bore the scars (Luke 24:39).
That's continuity.
Yet He was also glorified, so much so that His own disciples at times didn't recognize Him (John 20:14).
That's discontinuity.
Same yet new—and critically, this new reality was better.
So it is between the covenants. We are in a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6).
3 For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering,
4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Thus, when we, empowered by the Spirit, truly love one another, we are living out the new reality of the law of Christ, which is, and always has been, the very fulfillment of the law.
14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Navigating Two Ditches
Navigating Two Ditches
Why is this hard to live out?
Because our fallen hearts and deceptive culture pull us into ditches on either side.
Ditch 1: Lawless Love
Ditch 1: Lawless Love
Our culture has hijacked love, emptied it of meaning, and recast it as mere sentiment—a warm feeling—that justifies anything.
It says, "If we love each other, adultery doesn't matter."
It says, "Love means affirming someone's choices, even sinful ones."
But...
6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.
You may feel loving while violating God's commands, but the commandments expose self-deception.
As Thomas Schreiner writes, "No one can claim to be loving while violating God's commandments."
And the church, desperate for cultural approval, has often surrendered without a fight.
This counterfeit love has crept into the church.
We're told that loving someone means approving their sin, never confronting, never warning, never calling for repentance.
Saints, when the world accuses you of "hate" for calling sin what God calls it, remember:
The most unloving thing you can do is affirm someone in a lifestyle that will destroy their soul.
True love warns of danger.
If your "love" for someone leads to violating God's commands, it's not love—it’s sin masquerading as affection.
To affirm what destroys is hatred.
Love does no wrong to a neighbor.
Truth #2: “Law Needs Love for Its Inspiration.”
Truth #2: “Law Needs Love for Its Inspiration.”
Ditch 2: Loveless Law
Ditch 2: Loveless Law
The other ditch is legalism—reducing the law to mere rule-keeping.
The Pharisees meticulously kept the law but lacked compassion, tithing mint while neglecting mercy.
Their obedience was mechanical, not relational.
You can avoid adultery, murder, theft.
You can tithe to the penny, and maintain spotless church attendance.
Yet your heart can be cold, critical, loveless.
We can do all the "right" things for wrong reasons.
Paul warns in 1 Corinthians 13:3.
3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Law without love produces pride, not holiness.
Hear this: your obedience is worthless if not flowing from a heart of love for God and neighbor.
Love and Law Meet in Christ.
Love and Law Meet in Christ.
How can sinners hold law and love together?
We need more than instruction—we need transformation.
We need more than an example—we need a Savior.
Here's the glory of the gospel:
In Christ Jesus, we see perfect obedience fueled by perfect love.
Jesus didn't set aside the law to love us—He fulfilled its every requirement.
Christ fulfilled the law by perfect love.
Every commandment was kept—not merely in letter but in spirit.
His obedience wasn't grudging duty but glad devotion.
He loved God with all His heart and loved His neighbor—more than Himself, laying down His life for us.
Where you've failed to love God supremely, Christ succeeded.
Where you've failed to love sacrificially, Christ prevailed.
And His perfect obedience stands in your place.
His love covers your coldness.
At the cross, the law's demand for justice and God's heart of love met in perfect, violent harmony.
The cross wasn't love overriding law—it was love satisfying law.
The law demanded death for sin; love volunteered to pay it.
The cross is love's ultimate demonstration—not cheap or sentimental, but holy, sacrificial, redemptive.
His Fulfillment Becomes Ours
His Fulfillment Becomes Ours
But the gospel goes further.
As Brian Rosner observed, "If in Romans 8 Christ fulfills the law for us, in Romans 13 Christ fulfills the law through us."
Through union with Christ and the Holy Spirit's indwelling, His fulfillment becomes yours—not just legally, but experientially.
The Holy Spirit reproduces Christ's love in you.
Romans 5:5 declares:
5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
This love is not conjured by trying harder—you live out of resources already given in Christ.
True Christian love comes only through the Holy Spirit's transforming work.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
You love derivatively, not originally.
You don't manufacture this love—Christ produces it in you by His Spirit.
So, when Paul says "Love fulfills the law," he's not calling for moral performance but for spiritual participation in Christ.
Jesus said plainly,
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.
Love comes first; obedience flows from it.
Where Sinai engraved law on stone, grace writes the law on our heart.
The Holy Spirit energizes the law, turning "I must" into "I want to."
Christian, your calling is not to choose between law or love, but to live the law through love and love through the law.
In Christ, these two are forever united.
Summons: The Debt That Defines the Disciple
Summons: The Debt That Defines the Disciple
Where does this leave us?
To the one outside Christ:
Can you say you've never violated any of these commands? That you've loved your difficult neighbor as yourself?
Stop trying to pay the impossible debt of your sin. Come to the cross where the debt was paid in full by Christ. Receive His grace and the Holy Spirit.
To every believer:
Leon Morris observed, "We can never say, 'I have done all the loving I need do.'"
The debt of love isn't a side project—it is the Christian life.
In your marriage, parenting, friendships, church membership—love must continue and continually be defined by Scripture and animated by the Spirit.
If you claim to know Christ but harbor bitterness, withhold forgiveness, or excuse sin under "love's" banner, you're defaulting on your most sacred obligation.
Jesus said:
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Go from this place and love:
Love by keeping God's commandments—let law define your love
Love by obeying from the heart—let love animate your obedience
Love by depending on the Spirit—let Christ's fullness supply your emptiness
Love the difficult, the different, the demanding—for this is how Christ loved you.
Go forth as joyful debtors, eager to make payments on that one glorious, perpetual debt of love.
Repent, Believe, Be Baptized
Repent, Believe, Be Baptized
If you've never received this love from God, you stand in debt to His holy justice. But Jesus paid a debt He didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay.
Spurgeon said: "Ungodly man, if thou art ever to be saved, thou must draw nigh to God in prayer. Go to him at this moment, just where thou art sitting, and confess all thy sin to him; there is no need for thee to utter a word that any of us can hear, for God can read the language of thy heart."
"Dear Jesus, I confess I'm a sinner deserving judgment. I've lived in rebellion. I cannot save myself. But I believe You died for my sins and rose to give me eternal life. Forgive me, come into my life, grant everlasting life. Help me live for You! Amen."
Baptism is the visible side of faith and a public confession of your commitment to follow Christ. To sign up for baptism, text BELIEVE to 706-525-5351 or visit www.mtcarmeldemorest.com/baptism.
Prayer of Response
Prayer of Response
Heavenly Father, forgive us for separating what You've united—love without commands and law without heart.
Deliver us from sentimental deception and self-righteous pride. Pour out Your love into our hearts by Your Holy Spirit. Give us a love that is holy and defined by Your Word.
Give us grace to pay the perpetual debt of love—not from our own resources but from the infinite supply of Christ's Spirit.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
