The New Jerusalem also has gates of pearl. This is another wonderful aspect of the city. Pearls are produced by oysters in the ocean. When a grain of sand enters an oyster, the oyster is wounded and secretes its life-juice to coat the sand. When the sand is coated with many layers, a pearl is produced. Hence, an oyster depicts Christ, who, as the eternally living God, became a man, entered into the death waters of humanity, and was wounded by sinners, the grains of sand. He is now secreting His life around us to make us precious pearls so that we can be built into God’s eternal expression. When we receive Him as our Savior and remain in His death, His resurrection life operates and works within us to continually secrete His life essence around us, the little grains of sand. The more His life surrounds us, the shinier we become, until we eventually become pearls.
When we began the work in Taiwan, I spoke concerning the death and resurrection of Christ. I explained how Christ’s death keeps us in His death and how His resurrection operates within us to secrete the divine life. Through His death and resurrection, we are being transformed from grains of sand into pearls. Many saints can testify that this is not Oriental ethics, nor is it Western philosophy; rather, it is the truth contained in the Bible. This truth reveals that the materials of God’s building are gold, precious stones, and pearls. This refers to God’s nature, the transforming work of the Spirit, and the secreting work of Christ in His death and resurrection. We have gold in us, and we are becoming precious stones and pearls. These are the constituents of the New Jerusalem.
The New Jerusalem is the ultimate manifestation of the church. It is the ultimate manifestation of the totality of all the local churches throughout the ages. This ultimate manifestation is the fullness of God. God as the Father is rich. When He is expressed, He is the fullness in the Son. The Son, as the one grain of wheat, passed through death and resurrection and was reproduced as many grains (John 12:24). We are the multiplication of the Son. We are the fullness of the Son, His expression. The gold within us is increasing daily; hence, we are the church. We are also becoming precious stones, and the secreting work of Christ’s death and resurrection is making us pearls. As a result, in eternity all the believers will become the ultimate manifestation of God, the New Jerusalem. They will be the fullness of God, His expression. Thus, the New Jerusalem is a sign that portrays the believers.
The church in Taipei should be a miniature of the New Jerusalem. The presence of any wood, grass, or stubble shows that we need to be transformed. When we remain in the Lord’s death, He can carry out a secreting work within us. He can operate within us as the Spirit and envelop us with His life. In this way the little grains of sand become pearls. This brings us to the ultimate consummation of the Scriptures.
The Bible speaks about God entering into us to be our element of pure gold, Christ the Son passing through death and resurrection to bring us into His death and to carry out a secreting work within us to make us pearls, and the Spirit transforming us into precious stones. The ultimate conclusion of the Bible is the city New Jerusalem. The constituents of this city are pure gold, pearls, and precious stones.
Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ is the effulgence of God’s glory. However, in Revelation 21:11 the New Jerusalem has God’s glory, and the light of the city is like jasper and manifests God’s image. This is the outward appearance of the city, the ultimate manifestation of the fullness of God as His expression.