Paul has argued that to submit to the law’s demands as a means of righteousness is to submit to yoke of slavery, whereas those who submit to Christ are free. Today he continues that line of thinking, saying that if someone gets circumcised as an act of self-righteousness that they are obligating themselves to the entire law, and that such a person is not under Christ’s grace. Paul wants those who push the agenda of circumcision to be mutilated, which, you guessed it, is a thinly-veiled pun on Paul’s part. Paul wants the church to walk by the Spirit, and to put to death the works of the flesh.