Are there pearly gates in heaven?

Doubtless the gates of Solomon's temple were adorned to agree with the rest of the work. In the N.T. we read of THE BEAUTIFUL GATE of the temple, Acts 3:10; and Josephus relates that Herod made an outer gate of Corinthian brass, costing more than those adorned with gold and silver. The gates of the New Jerusalem are described as pearls: "every several gate was of one pearl," Rev. 21:12-25: the entrances must be in keeping with the rest of the city. The pearls represent the glories of Christ as seen in the church: cf. Matt. 13:46.

The introduction of the Harlot-church in Rev. 17:1 expressly and instructively answers to that of the Bride, the Lamb's wife, in Rev. 21:9, who is identified with the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. How any sober man, I say not spiritual, could conceive this applicable to the earthly Jerusalem, no matter how beautiful or blessed in the Millennium, passes comprehension. Does it not simply show the blinding power of an idea in contempt of the clearest scripture? The just and true inference from God's word is, that it is essentially neither of man nor of the earth like the Palestinian Jerusalem, but heavenly and divine and so having the glory of God, and described in figures altogether and purposely beyond the first creation, which will be ransacked to clothe the earthly metropolis with riches and beauty. Think of jasper clear as crystal, gold transparent as glass, and each gate of "one pearl!" It is all above nature; whereas earthly Jerusalem will be founded and built up with the best things of the earth. We must not think of material beauty in the heavenly city; it is a symbolic description.

Each of the twelve gates is said to be of one pearl (v. 21). This would be difficult to visualize literally. Spiritually, however, the pearl emphasizes the beauty of the grace of God in reference to the Church (Matt. 13:45-46). A pearl is a fitting picture of the Church. It is the result of some foreign substance coming under the oyster shell and causing an injury. The oyster then manufactures a substance called “nacre” or “mother of pearl” that surrounds the offending object with layer after layer, building up into a beautiful pearl. We are the offending object, but by God's work of grace we are covered and accepted “in Christ,” with a beauty that delights His heart of love. The Church is invested with such beauty that in her is seen the exceeding riches of God's grace (Eph. 2:7). But grace is not selfish: it delights to manifest itself to others, as these open gates infer. That grace also has pleasure in the blessing of Israel as is seen in the name of the twelve tribes of Israel on the gates.

"And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl." Why was every gate a pearl? You remember the heavenly merchantman, in Matthew 13, "seeking goodly pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it" (ver. 46). You may say, That is a sinner seeking the Saviour. Indeed! a sinner selling? What has a sinner got to sell but his sins? Nay, the pearl of great price is not Christ, but the Church — the Church in its unity. Christ went and sold all that He had, truly, and gave up all for the Church. The pearl is the Church in her unity, beauty, and completeness as viewed in God's mind, that so fascinated the Lord Jesus, that He parted with "all that he had," to get that pearl.

The building of the wall is of jasper (or diamond). The divine glory is itself a safeguard of the eternal city. What can touch that which God has ordained for His own praise? The city itself is pure transparent gold, — pure, permanent, radiant, — not hindering, but welcoming the enraptured sight. The foundations of the wall are adorned with every precious stone, — all the attributes of God displayed in that upon which rests the salvation of the people of God. The stones, in their separate meanings, are again a mystery. The twelve gates are twelve pearls — the picture of such grace as has been shown in the Church (Matt. 13:45-46). These gates stand open all the unending day. The street of the city is, again, "pure gold, like transparent glass." The street — especially in the east — is the place of traffic, the meeting-place constantly of need and greed. But here, all circumstances, all intercourse, the whole environment, is absolute holiness and truth, fit for and permeated by the felt presence of God.

The twelve gates are twelve pearls. The Church is the pearl of great price, and in each gate being of one pearl we see how God would present to Israel and the nations the thought of the preciousness of the Church to Christ, even though the Church be viewed in administration, as the number twelve again indicates. The street of the city is of pure gold, as it were transparent glass. It is a scene where divine righteousness is seen to the infinite glory of God. The city has only one street—there will be no systems, sects, divisions, and subdivisions there. The prayer of our Lord, “That they all may be one” (John 17:21), will yet be gloriously answered. The joyful contemplation of this would go far to produce a yearning of heart now by God's Spirit for the unity of God's people, and that nothing in our spirit and ways should help on the confusion and weakness of the present. Thank God, He will triumph over all the sectarian spirit to natural to the human heart, and give us all to enter practically, and forever, into His thoughts for His Church.

The pearl, we know from the Lord's own words, is used to set forth the preciousness of the church in His sight (Matt. 13:46). Thus, when we read that "every several gate was of one pearl" we are assured that in the day of glory there will be the setting forth, to every quarter of the world, the unity of the church as well as the preciousness of the church in the eyes of Christ.

"The twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl." (v. 21.) The symbolic force of the pearl may be gleaned from the parable in Matthew 13 — where the church is seen under the emblem of a "pearl of great price," the preciousness and beauty of which led the merchantman (Christ) to sell all that he had, and to purchase it. The pearl speaks, therefore, of what is attractive to the heart of Christ — a beauty which, as seen in the counsels of God, ravished Him, so that He loved the church and gave Himself for it. (See Ephesians 5:25-27.) And every gate of the holy city shone with this resplendent beauty, the fruit and issue of Christ's love and His redemption work.

There are yet other points which demand our attention. "The twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several gate was of one pearl." (Ver. 21.) That which first meets the eye as a walled city is approached, is its gate. Thus at every approach there shines out amid the surrounding wall of the divine glory, the pearl — the chosen symbol of what the Church was to Christ, of His own special delight in it as He saw it in eternity, in His own thoughts about it — "Who, when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had, and bought it." Every several gate showed out this.

"And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one severally of the gates was of one pearl." Such they appeared to men outside: something quite beyond nature. It is a description that alludes to the earthly Jerusalem; but in the latter city, what is really found existing in nature will be brought to adorn it. Here the beauty of the church is set forth by a supernatural imagery: each one of the gates was made out of one pearl. They are symbols which set forth the perfect and divine beauty that God will put upon His people. This is already true of them in Christ, but actually and personally will they thus shine in that day. Each gate being of one pearl would show I suppose, the special likeness of Christ and fellowship with Christ, which God will grant to His people — to the church. In Matthew 13 we have, as I conceive, the Lord Jesus as a merchantman in quest of goodly pearls; who, when He had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that He had and bought it. It is the beauty of the church, as viewed in God's mind, which if one may say it, fascinated the Lord Jesus, so that He parted with all His earthly glory to get that pearl: a strong expression indeed, but not too strong to convey His appreciation of the church. But we know that if the Lord saw any beauty in the church, it was all derived from Himself. He saw the church as she was in the mind and purpose of God, and sells all that He might purchase this pearl of great price, which after all is but the reflection of His own beauty. So here, the spotless pearl, the perfection of moral beauty that had been so precious in the eyes of Christ, is the figure of what, even at the entrance, will appear in the eyes of men and angels.