Redemption Part 1: Behold the Lamb of God Who Takes Away Condemnation

Redemption Part 1 opens a new series at NTC Ministries with a bold claim: redemption does not just forgive you, it removes condemnation and makes you better and more acceptable, even in your own eyes. The pastor starts where John the Baptist started, with Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and shows that self-condemnation is the main barrier standing between believers and everything God has already given them.

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 comparison of the old sacrifices with the Lamb of God, a timestamped outline, and practical steps for living free of condemnation.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached at NTC Ministries shortly after Resurrection Sunday and posted in April 2024. It runs about 65 minutes and closes with an invitation to receive Jesus as Redeemer. The speaker announces that he will teach on redemption for the next couple of weeks, and this is the foundation for the series that follows.

His thread through the whole sermon is condemnation. Redemption, he says, takes us away from bondage and brings us into a new life, and the evidence that it has truly taken hold is that we stop condemning ourselves. When we keep holding on to guilt, we resist what God has already done, and we end up trying to earn by our own works what He has freely given.

Behold the Lamb of God

The sermon begins at the hinge between the old covenant and the new. John the Baptist was sent as the forerunner to point everyone to Jesus, and the first thing he said when he saw Him coming was, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The pastor returns to that line again and again throughout the message.

Having just celebrated the resurrection, he stresses that nobody took Jesus’ life. Jesus said He had authority to lay it down and to take it up again (John 10:17–18). The church had just sung from Revelation about the elders casting their crowns before the Lamb who was slain (Revelation 5:8–12). He is the sacrifice given for all sin, and that is our redemption.

The pastor pictures humanity held hostage by a merciless lunatic, with Jesus giving His life as the ransom. He explains the Greek word for redemption as apolytrosis, a compound built on apo, meaning away, the same prefix found in apocalypse, which he describes as the coverings taken away. Redemption means being loosed from bondage and also carried away from it into another place and another life.

He also quotes Webster’s Dictionary, which defines redemption as the act of making something better or more acceptable. He loves that definition. Jesus did not just pay the ransom and send us back to whatever normal we could manage. He makes us better people. We are already accepted in the Beloved, and Jesus said whoever comes to Him He will by no means cast out (John 6:37). So who still needs to accept us? We do. Redemption, he says, makes us more acceptable to ourselves because it destroys condemnation.

That is why he says he is “not a fan” of ministers who want people to grovel and feel miserable in order to please God. Redemption saves us from sin and from the evil effects of sin, including that inner sense of being condemned.

Redemption Part 1: A Personal, Ongoing Redemption

The first text he reads is Ephesians 1:7–8: in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. One benefit of redemption, he points out, is that we grow in wisdom and understanding. God is not so exalted that we can never figure Him out; He wants us to understand His goodness, so religious thinking that says otherwise has to go.

The words “in whom we have” also mean redemption is personal, not only a historical event. It is a personal redemption from all of Satan’s dominion into the kingdom of the Son of His love. He compares it to James 1:23–25: do not be like someone who looks into the perfect law of liberty and then goes away and forgets what kind of person he is. In that mirror we see who God really made us to be.

Redemption is also a continual motion. We can say I have been redeemed, I am being redeemed, and I will be redeemed. The last piece is the body. We still feel the effects of a corrupted world in our bodies, but Romans 8:23 says we groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. He notes that Romans 8 begins with “no condemnation” and spends the entire chapter on this life of redemption. One day, when we see Him, we will be like Him (1 John 3:2).

Revealing God to the Angels

Why does redemption matter so much? Because, the pastor teaches, we are the only creation that can reveal God. He uses comfort dogs as an example: God can use them to comfort people, but they do not reveal Him. A new creation in Christ can comfort someone, and the presence of God flows to them as well. You are not an accident, he says. Redemption brings an incredible purpose into your life.

He goes further: we are even meant to reveal God to the angels. The seraphim cover their faces in God’s presence, but the redeemed know Him in a way angels do not. He reads Ephesians 3:8–12, where Paul says that the mystery hidden from the beginning of the ages was revealed so “that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”

The church is not a building, he says; we are the church. This was God’s eternal purpose, accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, “in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.” The pastor calls boldness the key. If we do not renew our minds to what Christ has done, we are not fulfilling God’s intention.

That leads to the line that frames the rest of the message: how you condemn yourself is your worst enemy. Thinking of yourself as smaller than God intended keeps you restricted, held back, lacking and afraid. He says he can hear condemnation in how people talk: we do not have enough, I cannot do that because. Some are even proud of it. But the fight of faith, he says, is not a fight against problems; it is a fight to see what God sees.

Why the Law Could Not Remove Condemnation

The pastor next turns to Hebrews 10:1–4. The law, having a shadow of good things to come, could never make those who approach perfect with the same sacrifices offered year by year. If it could, the sacrifices would have stopped, because the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. Instead those sacrifices were a yearly reminder of sins, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

The constant smell of death, he says, reminded people that they had fallen short. The strength of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). Was it God who wanted to condemn them? No. The condemnation came from the Adam nature. And so there is only one way: the Lamb of God, the one Mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5).

In Hebrews 10:5–10, Christ says that God did not desire sacrifice and offering but prepared a body for Him, and that in burnt offerings God had no pleasure. God never took pleasure in pointing out our shortcomings, the pastor says. Nobody asked to be born into corruption, and it was always His will to take sin away. “He takes away the first that He may establish the second.” By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

He is careful to add that the old covenant is still the Word of God and still shows us truth. But all it could do was show sin and weakness, which only brought condemnation. The table below sets out the contrast he draws.

Adam, the Fig Leaves and Self-Condemnation

To show where self-condemnation came from, the pastor goes back to the garden. God created everything before Adam and even planted the Garden of Eden for him. When Adam talked with the Lord, he had nothing to ask for, because God had already provided everything. That, he says, is God’s intention for our lives. After the fall, Adam was handed over to a life of works, by the sweat of his brow. According to Hebrews 4, the only work left for us now is to enter God’s rest, but people who condemn themselves cannot do that.

Satan’s lie in Genesis 3:5 was that God was withholding something and that eating the fruit would make them like God. Adam was already made in God’s image and likeness. The lie pushed him into working for what God wanted to give him freely. The pastor mentions people who say they would be struck by lightning if they walked into a church. They are so condemned in their own eyes that they resist God, when all along He wants to give them everything.

In Genesis 3:7–10, their eyes were opened, they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together. Immediately, he says, a new nature took over: I have to do something to get what I want. God did not want the fig leaves. He made them garments of skin Himself, which the pastor jokingly calls the first biker group in leather. When God called, “Where are you?” Adam answered that he was afraid and hid. God’s question, “Who told you that you were naked?” shows that He never wanted us to see ourselves in light of our own performance.

So God took away the law and redeemed us into His kingdom so we would see ourselves the way He sees us. In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). When you see yourself as God does, he says, condemnation leaves and peace flows like a river. Your value is not in who you are but in who God can be through you. And Jesus’ invitation still stands: come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:28–30).

The Earnest of the Spirit and Your True Value

1 Peter 1:18–21 says we were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from our aimless conduct, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, so that our faith and hope are in God. Not in ourselves, the pastor says, and not in our ability to manipulate. We have all schemed over how to get a job, a spouse or a place in a school. If we lack wisdom, we can simply ask God, who gives generously to all (James 1:5).

Then he reads 2 Corinthians 1:20–22: all the promises of God in Him are Yes and Amen, and He has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. He explains the earnest as earnest money on a house, the deposit that shows you are serious and will not walk away. Since redemption is not yet complete in our bodies, the Holy Spirit is God’s down payment on everything else.

He extends the illustration. Picture a $250,000 house lent out for a year to drug users. When you get it back it is trash, and no buyer will take it. That, he says, is what Satan did to us, and it is why people feel worthless. Now imagine someone offering a billion dollars for that ruined house and paying all but one penny up front. Would you worry about the penny? That is what God did in giving His Holy Spirit. Refusing it by saying “I’m nothing” is like telling the buyer the house is not worth his offer.

He shares a testimony. He and his wife Pam, after trying to help someone, ended up with a large debt on top of their mortgage, and the creditor demanded payment in full the day before he left for Africa. They prayed and handed it to the Lord. The creditor agreed to accept about $4,600 up front, and that afternoon a businessman he had once ministered to called, said the Lord told him to bless them, and wired exactly $4,600. Within about three years, he says, the debt was paid in full.

He finishes in Romans 8. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). If you sin, confess it, because He is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse (1 John 1:9), but he warns that habitual, unrepented sin opens a door for condemnation. He who did not spare His own Son will freely give us all things (Romans 8:32). And in Romans 8:33–39, it is God who justifies and Christ who intercedes, so nothing can separate us from the love of God. Become persuaded of that love, he urges, and stop condemning yourself.

Living Redemption Without Condemnation

The pastor closes by pointing to Colossians 3:1–3: if you were raised with Christ, seek the things above, because your life is hidden with Christ in God. Here are practical steps drawn from this message:

• Listen to your own words. Notice when you say “we don’t have enough” or “I can’t,” and recognize it as condemnation rather than humility.
• Confess and move on. When you sin, ask God’s forgiveness, receive His cleansing, and refuse to keep replaying it.
• Stop sewing fig leaves. Trade striving and manipulation for asking God for wisdom and trusting Him to provide.
• See your value through God’s eyes. Remember that the very Son of God was given for you, and that your purpose is to reveal Him.
• Thank Him for the down payment. Treat the Holy Spirit’s presence as God’s guarantee that the rest of redemption is coming.
• Spend time with Him like Adam did. Build your relationship in grace, simply being with Him, not by works and law.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 John 1:29: Behold the Lamb of God
• 1:07 Jesus laid down His life and took it up
• 2:16 The Greek word for redemption
• 3:31 Making us better and more acceptable
• 6:10 Ephesians 1:7: redemption through His blood
• 7:22 A personal redemption
• 8:39 Redeemed, being redeemed, will be redeemed
• 11:06 Revealing God to the angels
• 12:27 Ephesians 3:8–12: boldness and access
• 16:14 Hebrews 10: a reminder of sins
• 18:52 Only one way: the Lamb of God
• 21:27 He takes away the first to establish the second
• 25:15 Adam had nothing to ask for
• 28:59 Fig leaves and the works nature
• 31:33 Where are you? Who told you?
• 34:27 Your value is who God can be through you
• 35:55 1 Peter 1:18–21: the precious blood
• 38:40 2 Corinthians 1:20–22: Yes and Amen
• 41:34 The earnest of the Spirit
• 45:08 The ruined house and the billion-dollar offer
• 48:58 Testimony: a debt paid in full
• 53:11 Romans 8:1: no condemnation
• 56:07 Romans 8:33–39: more than conquerors
• 1:03:24 Invitation and salvation prayer

Redemption Series

This is the opening message of a series on redemption. Continue with the next teaching:

• You are here: Redemption Part 1: Behold the Lamb of God Who Takes Away Condemnation
• Next: Redemption #2 — The Hand of God, the Down Payment and Freedom From Condemnation

Frequently Asked Questions

Does freedom from condemnation mean sin no longer matters?

No. The pastor says plainly that it does matter what you do, because sin opens a doorway for condemnation to come back. If you keep habitual, unrepented sin in your life, living free will be a battle. His answer is simple: when you sin, confess it, receive God’s forgiveness and cleansing, refuse condemnation, and keep building your relationship with Jesus in grace rather than by your own strength and works.

Why does the pastor say we are only partly redeemed now?

He teaches that redemption is a continual motion: you have been redeemed, you are being redeemed, and you will be redeemed. Your spirit is made new now, but the redemption of the body is still ahead, which is why Romans 8:23 speaks of eagerly waiting for it. The Holy Spirit, given as the earnest or down payment, is God’s guarantee that He will complete the rest.

How can I tell if I am condemning myself?

Listen to how you talk. The pastor says he can hear condemnation when people say they do not have enough, cannot do something, or are just no good, and some even take pride in it. It also shows up as striving, manipulating and trying to earn what God freely gives. Any of these, he says, is a barrier that keeps you from receiving what God has for you.

Scripture References

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

• John 1:29 — the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
• Ephesians 1:7–8 — redemption through His blood
• Ephesians 3:8–12 — the manifold wisdom of God made known by the church
• Hebrews 10:1–4 and Hebrews 10:5–10 — once for all
• Genesis 3:7–10 — fig leaves and hiding
• 1 Peter 1:18–21 — redeemed with precious blood
• 2 Corinthians 1:20–22 — the Spirit as a guarantee
• Romans 8:1 and Romans 8:33–39 — no condemnation, no separation

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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