Enter and Remain in the Death of Christ to become a Pearl Gate in the New Jerusalem

As the consummation and pinnacle of God’s work throughout the ages, the New Jerusalem is very significant, rich in meaning, and at the same time applicable to our Christian life and church life.

On the one hand we need to see what is the spiritual significance of the features and characteristics of this holy city, and on the other hand, we want to see how these apply to our Christian life and church life.

The New Jerusalem has twelve gates – three gates on each of its four sides, and each gate is a pearl. On the gates there are names inscribed, the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and there’s an angel at each gate guarding the entrance to the city (see Rev. 21:18-21).

What do all these mean and how can they be applied to our experience as believers in Christ today? What is the spiritual significance of a pearl? Why does the New Jerusalem have gates – and why are they 12? Why is there an angel at the gate guarding the gate, and why is the names of the tribes of Israel written on the gates?

It is very significant to consider how is a pearl produced: a natural pearl (not a man-made or lab-produced pearl) is produced by a grain of sand entering into an oyster and hurting it, then it remains in the wound of the oyster; as time goes by, the oyster secrets life-juice around the grain of sand, layer after layer, until the grain of sand becomes a beautiful pearl.

Christ is the living oyster coming into the death waters of this world, and we as grains of sand hurt him (especially by crucifying Him on the cross). Then, we stayed in this wound – we entered into the death of Christ by repentance – and He secrets His life juice, His resurrection life, around us to coat us and saturate us with His life, making us – from a grain of sand – into a beautiful pearl.

We need to stay in Christ’s death and be conformed to His death through the power of His resurrection, and He will secrete His resurrection life around us to make us precious pearls for the building of God’s eternal expression.

Entering into the New Jerusalem through the Pearl Gates

Regeneration through the death-overcoming and life-secreting Christ is the entrance into the New Jerusalem.

In His eternal and infinite wisdom God uses many of the items in His creation to point out aspects and principles in His economy. When the Lord Jesus was on earth He used things such as the grain of wheat, the food, the water, and many other items in God’s creation in the parables He told.

The pearl gates in the New Jerusalem are a type of what is happening with us as believers in Christ. Christ is the living One, the living oyster, coming into our death situation (the sea full of death) and we, as a grain of sand, entered into Him and wounded Him.

We as sinners are made of dust, we hurt Christ through our sinful and selfish living, and yet Christ came to us through the preaching of the gospel; when we repented and believed into the Lord, we wounded the Lord and remained in this wound. As we stay in Christ’s wounds, He secretes the life-juice of His resurrection life around us, and this resurrection life envelops us, fills us, and eventually transforms us into pearls.

Our Christian life is a long process of remaining in Christ’s death to have the resurrection life being secreted around us and in us for our being transformed into precious pearls. The result of our entering into and remaining in Christ’s death is that we enter into the New Jerusalem by passing through the pearl gates.

Our regeneration is our entrance into the New Jerusalem. The twelve gates are three on each the four sides, welcoming everyone, and they are made of pearls. They are not made of iron or bronze but of pearls: so precious, lovely, and welcoming.

We enter into the New Jerusalem not by climbing over the wall (the wall is great and high, cannot be climbed over!) but by entering once and for all through the gates of the city.

The fact that the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel are inscribed on the twelve gates of the city (Rev. 21:12) means that the law watches and observes to insure that all the comings in and goings out of the city meet its requirements. When we repent and believe into the Lord, we fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law and we entered into the city of God, New Jerusalem.

When we repent, pray, and confess our sins, we are qualified to enter into the New Jerusalem. How wonderful it is when a sinner tells the Lord,

Thank You Lord Jesus for dying for me. I confess that I am sinful and I committed many sins. Forgive me, Lord, and wash me with Your precious blood. I admit that I’m worthy of nothing but death. Thank You for dying for me on the cross. I open to You and I receive You into my heart. You are my Lord and my Savior!

Remaining in the Death of Christ to be Produced as Pearls, the Entrance to New Jerusalem

The aspect of the pearls of the New Jerusalem can be experienced by us both initially when we believe into the Lord and progressively as we remain in the death of Christ. Through Christ’s redemption on the cross He opened the door for anyone who repents and believes into Him to enter into the New Jerusalem. But there is one more thing.

We don’t only enter into the city initially, but we are called to remain in the death of Christ, staying in His wound, and allow Him to coat us and fill us with His resurrection life until we become a pearl, that is, an entrance into the New Jerusalem for others.

Christ has done it all on the cross: He redeemed us and shed His blood for us, and by believing into Him we enter into the holy city. But we need to continue to remain in the death of Christ to enjoy the secreting of His life all the time.

Without believing into Christ we cannot enter into the New Jerusalem, and without staying in Christ’s death we are in practicality not a part of the New Jerusalem. As Paul said in Phil. 3:10, we need to aspire to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

If we allow the death of Christ to imprison us and if we stay in Christ’s death, we are embraced by Christ’s death and there’s an element being secreted by Christ: His resurrection life, which keeps us in a process leading to resurrection.

The Lord Jesus Himself started His ministry in death (by being baptized by John the baptizer in the river Jordan) and ended in death (the death on the cross); He lived a life by denying Himself, putting Himself aside, and staying in death so that the divine life of the Father would be expressed through Him.

As believers in Christ and reproductions of Christ on earth today we need to live a life that is not merely moral, ethical, religious, or even spiritual and seeking the Lord, but a God-man living, a life of remaining in the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection.

We praise the Lord for opening the way for us to enter into the New Jerusalem, and we continue to remain in Christ’s death by the power of His resurrection so that we also may become pearls as gates for others to enter into the New Jerusalem.

Lord, thank You for coming as the living oyster into our death waters. Thank You for letting us wound You. Thank You for constantly secreting the resurrection life around us to transform us and conform us to Your image to be pearls, a part of the New Jerusalem. Lord, keep us in Your wound, imprisoned in the death of Christ, being embraced by Your death. We want to know You and the power of Your resurrection and the fellowship of Your sufferings, being conformed to Your death. May we become Your reproduction as the pearls to be the entrance into the New Jerusalem for many others!

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, Life-study of Revelation (msg. 63), 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: the 12 gates are 12 pearls, and, Jesus opened the pearl gate: let’s enter! (via newjerusalem blog).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Twelve city gates are each one pearl; / Thus man is through redemption shown / Reborn and as a pearl transformed, / Entering to a realm God’s own. (Hymns #979)
  # Tis for the city man is wrought upon, / Therefore regenerated and transformed / To purest gold, to pearls and precious stones, / As Christ’s own Body, to Himself conformed. (Hymns #975)
  # When flows Thy life thru all our souls, / Filling, renewing every part, / We will be pearls and precious stones, / Changed to Thine image, as Thou art. (Hymns #837)