The children of Israel ... took up twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, as the Lord had spoken to Joshua ... and carried them over with them to the place where they lodged.
    Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood; and they are there to this day.
    At that time the Lord said to Joshua, "Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel."
    - Joshua 4:8, 9 and 5:2

What we were, so to speak, is all under the waters of death [seen in the Jordan River]. I learn that in the death of Christ I am free to say good-bye to myself. I am a person dead and risen, and I have life in a risen Christ; but God would always keep alive in my memory the way in which I have been brought into blessing and association with His Son. To this end I think we are greatly helped in the Lord's Supper. "And those twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal" (Joshua 4:20). They remained as the eternal witness of a finished work, just as the Lord's Supper speaks to us.

When Israel reached Gilgal, a new lesson was learned. Gilgal was the place of self-judgment. There they were circumcised (Joshua 5:2-9). But you cannot cut off the flesh in the energy of the flesh.* They were a dead and risen people, in figure, ere they were circumcised. And you will never find a Christian able to walk practically in the power of what Gilgal brings out, until he knows that he stands before God in the life of Another.

Where do we get this truth? I think you have it in Colossians. The second chapter says, "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ" (Colossians 2:11). I accept for myself the circumcision of Christ [His death]. I am set aside. I accept it. You are in newness of life now.

What is the next thing? "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1). How definite! Where Christ is. "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth" (verse 2). Note, it is earth here, not exactly the world, which is Egypt. But if my affections are on the things of earth, clearly I am not heavenly. That is the point. I can find worldly Christians, and earthly Christians, and again I can find souls that are heavenly. Ah, what a cheer it is to come alongside of a heavenly person.

And now the next word is, "You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ... Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth" (Colossians 3:3, 5). That is, I am to practically keep all that is of the first man in the place of death. That is our Gilgal.

"Then the Lord said unto Joshua, 'This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.' Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal (i.e., rolling) to this day" (Joshua 5:9). They set aside that which is the mark of a person who is living for this world. For a heavenly person to be worldly is his reproach. He needs to go again to Gilgal. And you will observe afterwards that Israel always had to return to Gilgal. [See Joshua 10:15, 43; Judges 3:19; 1 Samuel 11:14.] So must we. After victory or defeat, Gilgal--self-judgment--is our only recourse, if we are to progress in the divine life.

Walter T. P. Wolston

*Note: In the Bible, the term "flesh" often represents our natural desires and motives. For examples, consider Romans 8:5; Galatians 5:16-24; Philippians 3:3; as well as Colossians 2:11, discussed in the third paragraph of this article.