The salvation of the Gentile Cornelius at God's command was bound to result in negative repercussions in the church at Jerusalem from certain legalistic Jews. The cry arose, "they are not like us!" But Peter easily rebutted such objections. Gentiles had been saved when he obeyed Christ and preached the Gospel to them! The Judaizers took another crack at it sometime later. Now they insisted that Gentile believers must be circumcised, and keep the Mosaic Law! In effect, Judaizers annex the curse of the law to the Gospel, because under the law, we are all condemned. But Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse in our place, when He was crucified at Calvary. Peter now recalled that God had chosen him to first carry the Gospel to the Gentile Cornelius. They had believed the Gospel, and God had placed His stamp of approval on their salvation, by filling them with the Holy Ghost, putting no difference between Jewish and Gentile believers, purifying all their hearts by faith. Peter then makes this argument: if we Jews couldn't keep the law, with our centuries of rebellion and idolatry, why should we now test God by forcing the law on Gentile brethren, as an added condition upon what God has already granted to them without the law? But then, Peter articulated a glorious truth: we Jews believe that we shall be saved, just like the Gentiles! This is a new-found insight for Peter. No longer would he say that the Gentiles were saved just like us Jews. They were saved without law-keeping, without circumcision. We had tried and failed at salvation before we believed on Christ, but the Gentiles had come directly on in by faith alone in the Gospel!