Because Torah is both law and revelation, it functions in a dual capacity. On one hand, it is a rule of conduct by which we are held accountable. On the other hand, it is the expression of God in human terms. Torah is more than just legal formulations; it is the revealed Person of God dressed in laws and commandments. It is His spoken Word written down, His self-disclosure to the world.So when one realizes the Torah is God's self-disclosure to the world, one must also recognize the enormous gravity of declaring parts of that same Torah null or void. Even the smallest commandment of the Torah is the suffused with godliness. To declare any commandment as irrelevant or obsolete is to deny the eternal and unchanging nature of God.As soon as we begin to discard commandments, we have begun editing God. We have started reshaping God into an image we deem more appropriate.For example, we Westerners find the idea of clean and unclean laws disquieting. It is therefore theologically convenient for us to annul all laws pertaining to clean and unclean. By so doing, we are able to clean up God's image a bit. We feel more comfortable with a God who doesn't make seemingly superstitious distinctions between a menstruating woman and one who is not. But in so doing, we have changed God's self-disclosure to suit our biases. This is a very slippery kind of religion.When we tried to change the Torah or do away with the commandment, it is actually God we are trying to change or do away with.D. Thomas Lancaster, Restoration: Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus