That's your choice.
That's my choice.
"Beloved I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be no benefit to you. And I testify again to very man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole law." Galatians 5:3
You choose to live by the law (rules and safety and predictability, a life you can tell yourself you are controlling).
Or you can choose to live God's way -- a Free life (totally unpredictable, not in your control whatsoever, scary often, often a lot of questions go unanswered, not the way we are taught to live).
Jesus Christ is no benefit to me if I choose the safe life.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Why?
Because it is something so true, so profound to say that Jesus Christ is not safe.
We've been taught to believe safety is a necessary quality to a good life.
But it isn't.
And if it is a goal of ours we should know that means we definitely won't have a free life, the life of freedom God wants us to have.
"Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Galatians 3:3
If I choose the rules and regulations and the flesh way, Christ and His Spirit is of no benefit to me and my daily life. Oh yes, I can still be saved by belief in Him but my daily life will lack power and His Spirit. I will be a fruit tree that never produces fruit. I will be a flower that never blossoms. I will be a dried up stick stuck in the ground.
"You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?" Galatians 5:7