Acts 15:11

But Translation fails to give the force of this conjunction. It implies an exhortation for which the remainder of the verse states the reason. But cease now from such a course, for we believe, &c.

through the grace of the Lord Jesus (The most ancient authorities omit Christ.) It is not to our having conformed to the Jewish law, St Peter urges, that we look for salvation, but to the grace of the Lord.

even as they i.e. in like manner as they believe. Thus the argument is: If our belief and hope are the same, and no other, than theirs, why should these new converts be urged to adopt observances which form to us no ground for our hope of salvation? In the N. T. history St Peter's name appears no more, and when we call to mind the opposition which, at the close of the first, and in the second century, was represented as existing between the teaching of Paul and Peter, we cannot think that it was without meaning that this last appearance of the Apostle of the circumcision in the Scripture story sets him before us in full accord with the Apostle of the Gentiles.