Acts 11:18

And when they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles hath God granted repentance unto life.

This should have been the end of the circumcision problem which disturbed the church at that time and for years afterward. The umbilical cord that bound the infant church to Judaism should have been accepted as cleanly cut by this decision approving Peter's actions; but Peter wavered, and the powerful Judaizing party in the Jerusalem church put up a prolonged struggle to drag circumcision and various other Jewish ceremonials into the church of Jesus Christ. "The Judaizers in opposing Paul were acting against the church from which they pretended to derive their authority."[18]

Those who maintained the necessity for observing the older Covenant did so through misguided zeal œor the Law; but some did so from national pride and bigotry (Galatians 6:13).[19]

The problem was no doubt compounded by the large number of Pharisees who had accepted Christianity (Acts 6:7); and it would not finally be laid to rest until the apostle Paul would deliver the book of Galatians as the coup de grace for Judaism in the church. Indeed the problem, although diminished, has survived to modern times in such things as sabbatarianism, instruments of music in worship, the burning of holy incense, etc.

God hath granted repentance unto life ... In one sense repentance is something that men must do; in another it is something that God gives. There is no merit pertaining to men in such a thing as repentance, or any other obedience; and therefore, when God consents to permit repentance on man's part as one of the prior conditions of forgiving him, it is in essence a gift of God

Unto life ... Whereas the New Testament speaks of faith being "unto" righteousness (Romans 10:10), repentance being "unto" life (as here), and confession being "unto" salvation (Romans 10:10), it is of baptism alone that the word of God declares it to be "into Christ" (Romans 6:3; Galatians 3:27), and "into one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13).

[18] E. H. Plumptre, op. cit., p. 73.

[19] Cambridge Bible, One Volume New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1972), in loco.