Don't Sever Yourself from Christ, Listen to Him.

Galatians 5:2-6 (ESV)
Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. [3] I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. [4] You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. [5] For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. [6] For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Circumcision doesn’t seem too much of an issue anymore. But the principle still stands. Anyone who accepts circumcision is obligated to keep the whole law. Circumcision was just one point of the law as given in the Old Testament. People were seeking to be justified by it. Paul said that if you want to go this route you have to take on the whole law. The law isn’t for us to pick and choose what points we want to keep and which ones we don’t. You break part of the law you break all of it. It isn’t there for us to shape and mold according to our life. We can’t replace it with rules more to our liking, and make it easier for us. If you want to be justified by it, you have to take all of it.
Those who would justify themselves by the law sever themselves from Christ. He is our advocate. (How is that for the redemption of the office of lawyer! Christ himself is one!) If you don’t listen to your lawyer, there is nothing your lawyer can do for you. Our advocate, our lawyer, is speaking. He is telling us to forget it: “Don’t go that route it won’t get you off the hook with this judge, your too guilty. Forget the law he says, I am the way, the truth and the life. I get you off the hook. I forgive you your sins.’ So listen to your advocate. You sins are forgiven. Don’t sever yourself from Christ. Now that our sins are forgiven, now that we have been shown that love, love has been freed to do its work in us, and through us.