We all have to board the train at Gilgal; it is the beginning of our journey as believers. One cannot avoid Gilgal train station. What is so special with Gilgal? Gilgal means the rolling away, for the Lord had rolled away the reproach of Egypt. In Joshua 5, we read the account of the children of Israel when they came in the promise land. God had already said that the land was theirs, although they had conquered no city yet. But God told them to stop at Gilgal before doing anything. At Gilgal, God asked Joshua to circumcise all the people of Israel. For their fathers, who were circumcised before they came out of Egypt, had all died in the wilderness during the forty years they spent wandering. All those who were born in the wilderness were not circumcised.
The circumcision was the token or an indication that God has imputed His righteousness unto them; for the circumcision is not of the flesh but of the heart (Romans 2:28-29). God gives us a new heart and puts a new spirit within us; He takes away our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). This generation spent time in the wilderness; they ate manna, the bread from heaven, with their fathers; they drank from the Rock that followed them, which was Christ. Yet at Gilgal, God instructed Joshua to circumcise all of them.
Many people in our days are like that generation which crossed with Joshua. We have seen our fathers or parents serving the Lord. Our parents were born again believers, but we just followed the motion, we went to church because our parents brought us to church. We had no choice but to obey our parents. We partook of the bread and wine, done in remembrance of Jesus. But we were not born again, circumcised of the heart; for God had not imputed his righteousness unto us. We were just religious; church was our social club where we met our friends and people of the same group of interest. But we were not born again.