20-24. Note that not merely is circumcision in Gilgal within Jordan in the land, but the stones out of the bottom of Jordan are pitched there—we carry the witness and power of death there. We are dead and risen with Christ, not merely circumcised in heart—Christ's power is in it as well as the humbling though profitable end of self.
The full and entire deliverance of the sinner is associated, and indeed the only ground on which it can subsist, with the mortification of the flesh. The stones brought up from the bottom of Jordan were placed in Gilgal, saying, " Ye are risen, mortify therefore "; and in Col. 2 we find the true circumcision of Christ identified with the complete deliverance by His triumph over Satan, and that in death and resurrection; see Col. 2:11-15, and indeed to the end. Indeed without this deliverance in power, the mortification of the flesh would be impossible; it needs power—its only principle is death, for the flesh is unchanged.