To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10).
Through regeneration, we enter the kingdom of God and have access to enter into the New Jerusalem, and by remaining in the death of Christ (as the grain of sand remains in the wound of the oyster) we have a further entering into the New Jerusalem and a further becoming of the New Jerusalem.
The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem are twelve pearls, and today in our Christian life and church life we can experience being produced as a pearl, a part of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:21).
The Lord Jesus Christ came as the living oyster into our death waters, and we as a grain of sand have hurt Him, wounding Him as a grain of sand would wound the oyster. When we repent and believe into the Lord, we “enter into the oyster” – we enter into Christ and the process of becoming a pearl is underway.
Now throughout our Christian life we need to “stay home”, stay in the oyster, allowing the death of Christ to imprison us and hold us, so that the resurrection life of Christ in the Spirit would be secreted and would transform us and change us into a pearl.
In all the daily activities of our life, whether at home or at work, at school or meeting with the saints, we need to stay in the death of Christ, allowing Christ’s death to limit us and constrain us, and we will enjoy the resurrection life of Christ being dispensed into us and around us to make us a part of the New Jerusalem.
Paul aspired to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10). This is our destiny, as we follow the pattern of the Lord Jesus (who constantly denied Himself, dying to live and living to die) and as we imitate Paul – we need to be conformed to Christ’s death, stay in His death, and enjoy the power of resurrection operating in us constantly.
When we stay in this process, when we remain in the oyster experiencing the death of Christ, life operates in us and life is ministered to others also.
Remain the Death of Christ – His death is our Abode, our Dwelling, our Residence!
Just as Christ did when He was on earth, we as Christians are living to die and we die to live
In the application of the experience of the producing of the pearl by the oyster, we are the grain of sand who got into Christ as the living oyster, and we wounded Him and remained there.
When we repent and believe into the Lord, confessing our sins, we entered into Christ as the oyster, and from then on a lifelong process of remaining in Christ’s death begins.
Our home today is in the death of Christ. His death is our residence, our dwelling, and our rest; also, Christ’s death is our unique place of protection from the deadness in this world. Don’t try to get away from experiencing Christ’s death – it is your home, the place where you have your living and where you’re covered.
The reason we lose our temper with our spouse or our workmates is because we try to “get out of the oyster” – we “leave home”. As long as we stay and remain in the death of Christ, we won’t lose our temper and we will overcome the things in the world. From the beginning to the end, our home is Christ’s death.
The Lord Jesus took the lead to show us a pattern of remaining in death. He lived to die, and He died to live. Because He remained in death, constantly denying Himself and living by the Father’s life, when it was time for Him to physically die, on the one hand He was put to death in the flesh but on the other, resurrection life was operating in Him.
If we remain in the Lord’s death, the resurrection life is triggered off in us. When we speak to our spouse or to others, even though we may be completely correct and scriptural, yet if we don’t remain in the Lord’s death we actually impart death to them.
But if we remain in Christ’s death, if we “stay home” in the death of Christ, the resurrection life will flow out, it will envelop and embrace us, and we will experience the power of Christ’s resurrection by being conformed to His death – and the others will receive life.
We need to realize that the Christian life and the church life is not “a religious life”, putting on a certain living and appearance when we are with others, and in the rest behaving in a different way. Our Christian life and our church life is not a religious life and not even merely a “spiritual life”; it is practicing abiding in the Lord’s death and experiencing the power of His resurrection as we are being conformed to His death.
This is the process we all have to go through, and this is our entrance into the New Jerusalem. Abiding in the Lord’s death by the power of His resurrection is what produces us as overcomers, those who remain in death all the time so that others may experience and enjoy the divine life flowing in the church life.
Staying in Christ’s Death to Become Pearls as the Gates of the New Jerusalem
When we believed into the Lord, His divine life came into our spirit, and from our spirit, He wants to spread into every part of our being. On the other hand, when we believed into the Lord we entered into Him and are now “imprisoned” in Him – just as the grain of sand is imprisoned in the oyster.
We are imprisoned in the death of Christ by His secreting power, and this secretion is the move of His resurrection life. God doesn’t want to “kill us”; He wants us to remain in the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection, that is, experience the power of Christ’s resurrection as we are being conformed to His death.
As One who is living and organic, He was wounded by us, and He reacted by resurrecting to secrete His life-sap around the wounding ones. What a mercy! We wounded Him, and He will not let us go. Because of His great love with which He loved us, His wound caused by us became our prison. His desire is to imprison us in His death that we might enjoy His life-secreting resurrection….Christ makes us pearls by being wounded by us, by keeping us in His wound, and by secreting Himself around us in His death through resurrection in the Spirit, who is His reality. (God’s New Testament Economy, p. 344)
What happens when we stay in Christ’s death, remaining in His wound, is that His life reacts and secretes the resurrection life which is in the life-giving Spirit. Every living thing reacts when it is wounded, secreting its life-juice around it to deal with that situation.
If we remain in the death of Christ, the life-giving Spirit will operate in us in the principle of resurrection to impart the resurrection life of Christ to every part of our inner being. This causes us to be changed and transformed into pearls, the gates into the New Jerusalem.
We have entered into the New Jerusalem initially at the time of our regeneration, but through our experience of the Lord’s death by the power of His resurrection, we have a further entering into the New Jerusalem, even becoming a part of the holy city.
Because of His great love with which He loved us, when we wounded Him Christ held us tight and even “imprisoned us” in His wound; now as we stay in the Lord’s death and enjoy His life-secreting resurrection, we are being produced as pearls and have a further entrance into the New Jerusalem.
As we exercise our spirit and allow the death of Christ to operate in us in our daily life, the Spirit applies the resurrection life of Christ to our being and we become a part of the New Jerusalem, a lovely, welcoming, and attractive gate into the holy city for many others.
Let’s aspire to be imprisoned in Christ’s death so that His resurrection power would operate in us! Let’s “stay home” and never leave our residence, the death of Christ, so that we may experience being produced as the gates into the New Jerusalem!
Lord, we aspire to stay home in Your death so that the power of Your resurrection would operate in us. Thank You for Your great love with which You loved us. Even though we wounded You, You imprison us in Your wound and keep us in Your death, secreting the resurrection life around us to make us a precious pearl, a gate into the New Jerusalem. Save us from running away from home; keep us here, practicing to remain in Your death and stay here until the resurrection life fully envelops us and transforms us into a pearl, a gate to the holy city!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, God’s New Testament Economy (chs. 33-34), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Aspects of the Christian Life and Church Life Seen in the New Jerusalem, week 3 / msg 3, The Pearl Gates and the Golden Street.
- Similar blog posts: Gates of Pearl, and, Enter New Jerusalem Now (via newjerusalem blog).
- Hymns on this topic:
# If I’d know Christ’s risen power. / I must ever love the Cross; / Life from death alone arises; / There’s no gain except by loss. (Hymns #631)
# ’Tis not hard to die with Christ / When His risen life we know; / ’Tis not hard to share His suff’rings / When our hearts with joy o’erflow. / In His resurrection power / He has come to dwell in me, / And my heart is gladly going / All the way to Calvary. (Hymns #481)
# From fullest growth and transformation / Comes a pearl of worth; / This simple, precious, all-inclusive / Gem will then come forth. / Conceived in death and formed in life / By that all-glorious One, / The church, His Bride, the fruit of all / The work that He has done. (Hymns #1242)
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