You Cannot Have the Icing Without the Cake (Acts 28 and Jews Only)

You Cannot Have the Icing Without the Cake

One of the greatest inconsistencies in the Acts 28 position is that it teaches believers today should read and apply Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, while claiming that Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Thessalonians do not directly apply to the Body of Christ today.

But this creates an impossible problem.

The later epistles are not disconnected from the earlier ones. They are built upon them.

Romans lays the foundation. Galatians defends that foundation. Corinthians explains the practical life built upon that foundation. Thessalonians reveals the expectation of Christ’s return. Then Ephesians takes all of those truths and reveals the fuller purpose of God concerning the Body of Christ.

In other words, Ephesians is the icing—but Romans is the cake.

You cannot have the icing without first having the cake.

You cannot understand the mystery revealed in Ephesians if you reject the gospel that brings people into that mystery.

Paul never begins Ephesians by explaining justification by faith because he had already spent sixteen chapters in Romans doing exactly that. He does not redefine grace because Galatians already defended grace against legalism. He does not reestablish the believer’s relationship to Christ because Corinthians already explained believers as members of Christ’s Body.

The later letters assume the reader already understands the earlier revelation.

Imagine reading the final chapters of a book while throwing away the opening chapters that explain everything. The conclusion would make little sense because the foundation had been removed.

That is exactly what the Acts 28 position attempts to do.

It accepts the climax of Paul’s revelation while discarding the foundation upon which that revelation stands.

The Mystery Is Entered Through Faith

Even more importantly, Ephesians itself completely undermines the “Jews only” position.

The entire purpose of Ephesians is to show that God has created one new humanity in Christ.

Paul writes:

“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh… at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise… But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”

(Ephesians 2:11–13)

Notice Paul’s language.

These believers were Gentiles.

They were outside Israel.

They were strangers to the covenants.

Yet now they have been brought near—not by becoming Jews—but through Christ.

Paul continues:

“For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.”

(Ephesians 2:14)

Who are the “both”?

Jews and Gentiles.

The wall separating them has been broken down.

Then Paul says:

“…for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.”

(Ephesians 2:15)

Not two peoples with different access to God.

Not Jews first and Gentiles receiving leftovers.

One new man.

One Body.

One people in Christ.

Then Paul explains how this happens:

“For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”

(Ephesians 2:18)

Both Jews and Gentiles have the same access to God.

Neither group possesses a higher standing before Him.

The dividing wall has been removed.

The same truth appears throughout Paul’s earlier letters.

“There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.”

(Romans 10:12)

“There is neither Jew nor Greek… for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

(Galatians 3:28)

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles.”

(1 Corinthians 12:13)

Paul never presents Jewish ethnicity as the doorway into God’s promises.

The doorway is always faith in Christ.

In fact, Ephesians explicitly says salvation comes:

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

(Ephesians 2:8–9)

Not through nationality.

Not through circumcision.

Not through becoming part of Israel.

Through faith.

The irony is striking. Those who appeal to Ephesians while teaching that God’s promises still depend upon Jewish identity are contradicting one of the central themes of the very book they claim is written to believers today.

Paul’s mystery is not that Gentiles receive a few blessings from Israel. It is that believing Jews and believing Gentiles have become one Body, with the dividing wall removed, sharing the same standing before God through Jesus Christ.

You cannot preach Ephesians while denying the Romans and Galatians foundation upon which it stands. Nor can you preach Ephesians honestly while rebuilding the very wall of separation that Paul says Christ tore down.