Free from the Opinions of Others | Sermon | The Grove Church

The Most Loved Man in the Room

Christian Freedom: Galatians, Week 6 | All sermons

"Approval through Christ sets you free."

Summary

In this message on Galatians 2:14-21, David Hancock, pastor of The Grove Church in Port St. Lucie, Florida, examines the invisible verdicts every room carries: approval from one corner, disapproval from another, and the exhaustion of trying to manage them all. Peter, one of Jesus' closest friends, caved under exactly that pressure and stopped eating with Gentile believers. Paul confronts him publicly, and in doing so gives the key to walking into any room without needing anything from it. When you know you are already the most loved person in the room, the opinions of others lose their power.

Key Takeaways

To be justified means Christ accomplished everything God required and credited it to you, so the verdict over you cannot be improved or damaged.
Justification is courtroom language. You are not merely forgiven; you are declared righteous.
Paul moves from explaining the doctrine to worshipping it, and that shift from doctrine to doxology is the path to freedom.
Nullifying grace is subtle: it happens every time we offer our good behavior as leverage with God.

Read Galatians 2:14-21 (ESV)

But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Talk about it

1. Think about a room or situation where you feel the most pressure to manage what people think of you: a family gathering, a work event, a social setting. What makes that room so hard? What version of yourself do you feel pressured to perform?

The Pressure in the Room: Why Do Other People's Opinions Have So Much Power?

Peter had been eating freely with Gentile believers, people Jews did not normally associate with, until a group arrived from Jerusalem. Under their social pressure, he pulled away and stopped sitting with the Gentiles. He was not trying to be cruel. He was trying to navigate the room. But in doing so, he fractured the unity the gospel creates and undermined the very message he believed.

THE SERMON'S ILLUSTRATION Imagine a party that feels like a courtroom. Your family, your boss, your old high school friends, your church community: each group carries different expectations of who you should be. You spend the whole night spinning, trying to maintain the version of yourself each group needs. It is not fun. It is exhausting. And it is impossible.

Talk about it

2. Peter caved to social pressure from people whose opinion mattered to him, and it cost the whole community. When have you done something similar: said yes when you meant no, stayed quiet when you should have spoken, or changed your behavior because of who was watching? What did it cost?

3. The sermon makes a sharp observation: people who say they do not care what anyone thinks are usually protecting themselves from past pain. Is there someone whose disapproval wounded you in a way that made you shut down? How has that shaped how you move through rooms today?

Justified: What Does It Mean to Be Justified by Faith?

Paul uses the word "justified" many times throughout his speech. It is the center of his argument. To be justified by faith means Christ accomplished everything God required and credited it to you. It is courtroom language: you are not just forgiven; you are declared righteous. When the Father looks at you, he sees you the way he sees his own Son. Nothing you do or fail to do moves that verdict.

Talk about it

4. Paul says justification means your legal standing before God cannot be improved by your performance or damaged by your sin. What part of you resists it, and what part of you desperately wants it to be true?

5. Paul moves from explaining justification to worshipping: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." The sermon calls this moving from doctrine to doxology, from understanding to worship. Have you ever experienced that shift, where the gospel stopped being information and became something you felt? What triggered it?

6. The sermon describes imagining your Hero walking into the crowded room and standing beside you, and how his presence makes all the competing verdicts shrink. What would it practically look like for you to walk into a hard room with that kind of awareness? What would you do differently?

Don't Nullify the Grace: What Does It Mean to Nullify God's Grace?

Paul ends with a warning: "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." Nullifying grace does not mean rejecting Christianity outright. It happens subtly, every time we add our good behavior as evidence God should love us, or treat our failures as evidence he does not.

Talk about it

7. The sermon says grace means you have to throw out all your good behavior as leverage with God. You cannot say "love me because I tried hard, I gave generously, I was not judgmental." That is nullifying grace. What good things do you quietly hold up to God, or to yourself, as reasons you deserve his approval?

8. Peter's doxology dried up. The truth went cold and he lost his freedom. What causes that to happen in your own life? When the gospel stops feeling real and the room starts feeling like a courtroom again, what does that usually look like for you?

The Heart of It: Why Does the Risen Christ Still Have Scars?

The sermon closes with one of the most striking images in the series. Isaiah 49:16 says our names are engraved on the palms of God's hands, not in ink but in scars. The risen Christ still carries those wounds. Thomas would not believe until he saw them, and Jesus found him and showed him. For all of eternity, we will look at our God and see scars that carry our names.

ISAIAH 49:16 "Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands."

Talk about it

9. The sermon ends: "When someone praises you, it is nothing compared to the love on those hands. When someone disapproves of you, it melts away when you see your name there." Is there a specific room, relationship, or situation in your life right now where you need to see those scars? What would it mean for you to walk into that situation knowing your name is there?

Questions This Sermon Answers

What does it mean to be justified by faith?

Christ accomplished everything required of you and credited it to your account. You are clothed in his righteousness. There is nothing you can do to make God approve of you more, and nothing you can do to make him approve of you less.

What does it mean to nullify the grace of God?

Nullifying grace does not mean rejecting Christianity outright. It happens whenever you offer your good behavior as evidence God should love you, or treat your failures as evidence he does not. Paul's point is that if righteousness could come through the law, Christ died for no purpose.

What happened between Paul and Peter in Galatians 2?

Peter had been eating freely with Gentile believers until a group arrived from Jerusalem, and under that social pressure he pulled away. Paul confronted him publicly, because Peter's conduct was not in step with the gospel and it fractured the unity the gospel creates between Jew and Gentile.

Why does the risen Christ still have scars?

Isaiah says our names are engraved on the palms of God's hands, not in ink but in scars. Thomas would not believe until he saw the wounds, and Jesus found him and showed him. For all eternity we will look at our God and see marks that in a very real sense carry our names.

Vision for the Christian Life

The Grove to become a community whose freedom runs so deep that no room can shake it. People who walk in already most loved by the Father, no longer ruled by the lust for approval or the fear of disapproval, free to love every person they meet because they have nothing left to prove.

Discussion Questions for Small Groups: Galatians 2

Think about a room or situation where you feel the most pressure to manage what people think of you: a family gathering, a work event, a social setting. What makes that room so hard? What version of yourself do you feel pressured to perform?
Peter caved to social pressure from people whose opinion mattered to him, and it cost the whole community. When have you done something similar: said yes when you meant no, stayed quiet when you should have spoken, or changed your behavior because of who was watching? What did it cost?
The sermon makes a sharp observation: people who say they do not care what anyone thinks are usually protecting themselves from past pain. Is there someone whose disapproval wounded you in a way that made you shut down? How has that shaped how you move through rooms today?
Paul says justification means your legal standing before God cannot be improved by your performance or damaged by your sin. What part of you resists it, and what part of you desperately wants it to be true?
Paul moves from explaining justification to worshipping: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." The sermon calls this moving from doctrine to doxology, from understanding to worship. Have you ever experienced that shift, where the gospel stopped being information and became something you felt? What triggered it?
The sermon describes imagining your Hero walking into the crowded room and standing beside you, and how his presence makes all the competing verdicts shrink. What would it practically look like for you to walk into a hard room with that kind of awareness? What would you do differently?
The sermon says grace means you have to throw out all your good behavior as leverage with God. You cannot say "love me because I tried hard, I gave generously, I was not judgmental." That is nullifying grace. What good things do you quietly hold up to God, or to yourself, as reasons you deserve his approval?
Peter's doxology dried up. The truth went cold and he lost his freedom. What causes that to happen in your own life? When the gospel stops feeling real and the room starts feeling like a courtroom again, what does that usually look like for you?
The sermon ends: "When someone praises you, it is nothing compared to the love on those hands. When someone disapproves of you, it melts away when you see your name there." Is there a specific room, relationship, or situation in your life right now where you need to see those scars? What would it mean for you to walk into that situation knowing your name is there?

Related Messages in This Series

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Pastor David Hancock is the Lead Pastor of The Grove Church in Port St. Lucie, FL, a church where believers and skeptics wrestle honestly with faith and doubt.

Wrestling with a question this raised? You can text in your question on any Sunday and hear it answered after the sermon. Or come sit with people asking the same things. Plan Your Visit

Read the full sermon manuscript

It's been a long time since I have used a Lord of the Rings illustration, and I've worked really hard to give you a break, but there is a character who works too well so I must indulge myself. His name is Tom Bombadil. In this story there is an evil ring that represents temptation, and if you put it on, you disappear and are brought into an evil space. The lure of the ring is strong, even for the most powerful characters, because they believe that by owning the ring they can become powerful, beautiful, loved and admired by all. But there is one man, Tom Bombadil, who cares little for the ring, and when he puts it on, he alone is completely unaffected by it.

I want you to imagine that whenever you walk into a room full of people, there is a ring in your pocket that lures you into the desire to be praised and approved of by others. But the ring only pulls us into evil, because when we gain the approval of others it goes to our head, and their disapproval goes to our heart. And this lust for approval prevents us from loving others, because all we can think about is what others think of us.

We are in our series called Christian Freedom in Paul's letter to the Galatians, and today we are all going to leave here like Bombadil. Loving toward others, yet uncontrolled by their opinions of us. Today we learn how to be free in every room, no matter who is in the room.

But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Paul is writing this letter to the Galatian church because a crisis emerged about Paul and his message.

His message is that everything God has required of us has been accomplished by Christ and credited to us. There is nothing left to do. You can't get more acceptance by doing good or lose acceptance from your sin. It doesn't mean bringing good into the world isn't important. But it does mean you are free from doing good to earn acceptance. To say it another way: the gates to the presence of God have been torn down in Christ, and now no religion, leader, or king can put up any gates that keep you from God's transformative presence.

But after Paul plants the Galatian church he leaves to start more churches.

When he goes, a highly organized, winsome, and persuasive group called the Judaizers come in with a letter of recommendation from none other than James, Jesus' half brother and leader of the church in Jerusalem. Traveling teachers in the past would have these letters that work like ancient Google reviews, and the Judaizers essentially have a five-star review from the greatest person to have a review from.

This gives them immediate influence.

They say, Paul is leading you astray. He is telling you that you are approved of by God, but you aren't. There is more you must do; you must become Jewish, adopting the laws of Moses, and they become specifically focused on circumcision. Yes, Christ is great, king even, but the king didn't accomplish what God required of you. You must finish what he started and observe the laws of our forefathers to be approved of.

In fact it seems they have been suggesting that Paul is bringing this false message to make a name for himself. He wants the approval of the world.

They also seem to say, Paul has no letter, he doesn't have the approval of those above him, but we do.

That's the setting in Galatia that Paul is writing into. So he starts the letter.

From Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father.

Paul has just set the tone of this letter. He is saying, all of my authority doesn't come from the approval of man but from God.

He is on a mission from God, not man.

This is important because he is saying, look, I'm not working for me or you but for God, for your sake. I don't need a letter, because I've been sent by God for you.

He makes that clear a few lines later in 1:10 where he says I'm not seeking the approval of man but of God. This theme of approval of man versus God stays constant through the letter.

Later in the letter Paul would imply that the Judaizers' so-called letter of recommendation from James was a fake. Why would they do that?

At the end of this letter he exposes them and says, it's the Judaizers who are seeking the approval of man because they are trying to make a name for themselves. They are accusing Paul of doing what they themselves are doing.

Last week we saw these same Judaizers, under a different title, the circumcision party, enter a room full of Christians, both Jews and Gentiles together, people who didn't normally get along, united as one. But when the circumcision party walked in, Peter cowered under social pressure and stopped sitting with the Gentiles.

I imagine he was trying to navigate the social pressure of being a leader for the sake of the movement, but instead he put the movement in jeopardy. The gospel, the good news of Christianity, has as its outcome the uniting of every nation, race, class and people group, and Peter just weakened the movement when he responded to the social pressure.

Peter is not a villain; he is a cautionary tale, trying to navigate the social pressure of being a leader. But the pressure broke him; he caved to the wrong voices. He was trying to seek the approval of all people, and it drove him to fail.

I want you to feel what Peter probably felt, so you understand how easy this is to fall into. Imagine you walk into a party that feels also like a courtroom. Your family is there: spouse, kids, mother, father, siblings. Also your work friends, like your boss and those you lead. Your neighbors are there, your old friends from high school who remember the crazy version of you and want to raise that old you from the grave, and your church friends are there.

Now each of these people carry their own opinions and beliefs about what you should believe and how you should live.

Your father wants one thing of you, your boss wants another, your old school friends have expectations for the night, and your new church friends never saw that old version of you.

Meanwhile, your mother feels ignored by you.

You're trying to navigate it all, and it's exhausting.

This is why you feel so tired after a party like this. It's not because you are having so much fun; it's because your brain is spinning, trying to maintain the image each group has of you.

Not only is this exhausting, but it's impossible. You can't be all those different versions at once.

Now, some of you have been trying to convince yourself and the world that you don't care what anyone thinks of you. Please. The reason you say you don't care what people think of you is because someone in the past, whose opinion mattered, wounded you or let you down. That is why you are so angry and why you don't trust people, because you have cared in the past and it brought pain, so you decided you wouldn't let that happen again. That isn't freedom, that's slavery, keeping you from potentially great friendships today.

The question this letter demands we ask is this: how can I love everyone in the room while not being controlled by their opinions of me?

That is Bombadil. He loves but isn't controlled by the many verdicts of others.

The path to become unfazed by the lure of approval is found in our verses. Here, Paul gives a public speech directly to Peter, and within it we find the key to be free.

The speech starts in verse 14, which we covered last week, but what you must see is that it extends all the way to verse 21. In our version the quotations end, but in the Greek there are no quotes, so the translators are trying to figure out where the speech ends. I think it's clear. In chapter 3 Paul says, O foolish Galatians. That is where a new speech begins and where his speech to Peter ends.

So in verse 15 Paul says in public to Peter, we are Jews by birth, not Gentile sinners. So the Gentiles are sinners; here the Judaizers would agree, but he is setting them up, because next he says, yet we know a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Christ. Meaning no one finds approval from God by works, not even Jews. Approval is found in faith alone.

Then Paul says, so we also, us Jews, have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. The idea is repeated to make sure Peter and the Galatians reading this story understand that works of the law can't justify anyone. We all need grace.

Now let's pause at this word justify, because Paul says it three times in this verse.

This is the central argument of this letter. The big idea in one verse.

To be justified by faith means Christ accomplished everything required of you and then credits you with what he accomplished as if you had done it. Theologically, it's called imputed righteousness.

The imagery the Bible uses is of a cloak of righteousness. A covering. So when the Father looks down and sees you, He sees you like He sees His one and only perfect Son. There is nothing you can do or not do to make God approve of you more or less.

But in verse 17, Paul predicts the problem many people have with Christianity. People say, so you can just do whatever you want and you are still in. In the legal sense, yes. What you need to understand is that justification is courtroom language. It's not that the Christian isn't guilty; they are, but Christ trades places with them. So legally, we aren't.

Paul says, so does this mean Jesus is a servant of sin? Certainly not. In other words, Christ isn't forgiving you so you can just go on sinning. He is forgiving you so you can have access to God always, after every sin, and there He changes you.

To seal this understanding, in verse 18 Paul demolishes that common objection by saying, for if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. Here Paul is saying, Peter, do you want to know what a servant of sin looks like? It's this: Christ died to tear down any gate that stands between us and God, and when we say you must follow the law to get to God, you are building the gate back up, and that might just be the greater sin, because by doing that you keep people from the God who can transform them.

Paul goes on in verse 19 and says, but through the law I died to the law, so I might live to God. In other words, the law I was following leads to death because it makes me guilty. So I died to trying to keep the law.

And last, in verse 20, Paul begins to worship through his words. I can picture Paul with raised hands as he says, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

If we were Paul it would be like saying, my death has already happened in Christ. Christ was punished in my place. His death was credited to me. My crimes are paid for, not by me, but by Christ, because I'm united to Christ in His death, so His death became my death.

Like double jeopardy, I can't be accused of the same crime twice. I'm free.

Moreover, I'm united to Christ's resurrection. I've been raised into a new life, one that doesn't have walls that keep me from access to my Father in Heaven. Every wall my sin built, every wall that any religion or king has put up that keeps me from my Father, has been burned to the ground. I'm free any moment to run to Him.

What I want you to see here in verse 20 is that Paul has preached himself into worship. This is called moving from doctrine to doxology.

This is the key path to freedom. Understanding the approval you have in Christ in vivid detail, and knowing the cost Christ was willing to pay to buy your approval, in your heart.

The love and grace of God went from a theological idea to a truth that inhabited Paul.

And you must learn to do the same, to move from doctrine to doxology.

If you walk into the room already in worship, it changes the way you walk through the party.

Imagine the room again, the competing verdicts.

But all of a sudden someone new walks in. Your Hero.

The one who loved you and gave his life for you. The one who broke down the gates that kept you from God.

He comes and stands beside you as you walk through the room, and suddenly the opinions of others lose all their power. Their praise looks small compared to the praise you have received through Christ.

Their disapproval melts away at the approval of God.

It's not that you don't care about the people in the room; you are now free to love them more, yet their opinions weigh less.

Your Hero in the room makes you feel like the most loved man in the room.

Now all the opinions, even your own, melt away in that presence.

If you want this freedom, and I don't know why you wouldn't, it might be because you don't want to admit just how wonderful Christianity is. But if you do want it, Paul tells you how to get it in verse 21.

He says, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

In other words, if you could have been approved of by God because of how good you are at following the law of God, then what's the point of Christ's death? It's meaningless, and the most devastating thing to ever happen in the cosmos means nothing.

But here is the challenge we must all wrestle with: will we nullify the grace of God?

Meaning it's either law or grace, and you must choose.

Now, the rational person would say, why would I ever choose the law over grace?

I'll tell you why. Because grace means you must trash all the good things you have ever done as evidence that God should love and approve of you.

When you look at the good things you do in your life, you can't say to God, love me because I tried hard, I tithed when so few Christians did, I wasn't judgmental, I was a good dad or mom, because I'm not like all the others.

That is nullifying the grace of God.

Paul is saying, when you try to add works to what Christ has already done, you forfeit Christ. You lose all he did for you. Nullified.

To be a Christian means you believe you can't lose your good standing with God because of your sin, and it also means you can't gain a greater standing because of how good you are.

After all, how can you outperform Christ?

When you know this, no one can take your freedom and approval, not even you. So you stop monitoring opinions, you are done performing, and you aren't thinking of yourself at all.

You are thinking about others, but not what they think of you.

If you can't reach that level of love and freedom as you walk through the party, it means in that moment you have nullified the grace of God.

That's what happened to Peter: his doxology dried up. The truth went cold, and he lost his freedom.

So what must you do so you don't become like Peter and nullify the grace of God?

Before you have a hard conversation with your spouse, so you don't get defensive, you must remind yourself that you are already loved and justified. That makes you stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about your spouse. You move to the same team.

Before your performance review with your boss, you don't walk in as someone who needs approval. Christ is sitting right beside you, and His love and grace keep you free.

Often when our kids do well, we feel it's a reflection of us. The opposite is also true. That's why we put tons of behavioral and performative pressure on our kids. I dare you to ask them if you are doing it to them.

In our parenting, we must remember Christ is not only beside us in the room but also with them. That's when the world's opinions melt and your whole family is free. I have to teach that to my children, because they are pastor's kids and the world is going to put way too much pressure on them, so I'll fight for them to be like Paul and Bombadil.

If you want that for yourself, it requires a deep knowledge that you are the most loved person in the room, at least it feels that way, because God loves you like He loves His one and only Son.

Learn to make God's face of approval more vivid than all other faces.

How can you do that? By constantly looking at Christ.

In Isaiah 49:16 we are told that our names are graven into the palm of His hands.

It isn't in permanent ink but in a permanent scar.

The scar wasn't put there by an artist's tool, but by the nail of the commissioner of death.

When you wonder how much He loves you, look at His scarred hands.

When you walk through a room, keep your eyes on them.

His love for you drove Him to endure it all.

On the cross He took your sin and death, and left them in hell.

The same love that drove Him there proved stronger than death itself, and fiercer than the grave.

And when He rose, doubting Thomas said, I can't believe unless I see His scars. So Jesus finds Thomas, like He might find you today, and shows him the scars.

Some of you don't yet believe. Be like Thomas and see His scars for you.

More even, notice the risen Christ has scars.

For all of eternity we will look at our God and remember that those scars, in some very real sense, have our names on them.

Remember that when you walk into any room, and you will stay free.

When someone praises you, you say it's nothing compared to the love on those hands.

When someone disapproves of you, it melts away when you see your name there.

You don't need the room to tell you how valuable you are. Your name on His hand says it all.