The producing of the believers as the pearls by Christ in His redemptive work is allegorized in the blood and water which came out of His side (John 19:34). When He was dying on the cross, a soldier pierced His side and immediately there came out blood and water. Blood and water are two allegories to describe the redemptive work of Christ. Blood is for redemption and water is for regeneration. We need redemption because we are sinful, and we need regeneration which is the initiation of the secretion of Christ’s resurrection life, because we are merely human and do not have the divine life. We need the blood to wash away our sins, and we need the water as the flow of the divine life to germinate us, to bring the divine life into our being, that we may have the life power to overcome so many things. The first stanza of Hymns, #1058 says:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save me from its guilt and power.
The writer of this hymn refers to the “double cure.” His redemption gives us a double cure. First He washes away our sins, and second He regenerates us. His blood saves us from the guilt of sin and His life saves us from the power of sin. In His redemption Christ can give us a double cure—He washes away our filthiness and He keeps away our death. This double cure is His redemptive work, yet for us to enjoy His redemptive work, we must be willing to be imprisoned in His death. While we are in His death, He has the position to secrete Himself around our being. Then we will surely receive the double cure and we will be produced as pearls for the entry into God’s building.
To produce pearls the main thing needed is that another element has to be added to the wounding rock. The rock is one element and the oyster’s secretion brings the element of the oyster life to this rock. Two elements are mingled together to produce a pearl. Your human life, your human being, with your natural element is the rock. After we wounded Christ, He captured us and He is now keeping us in His death to secrete Himself around us, which is the adding of His divine element to our human element. This shows us how marvelous the allegories in the Bible are. No plain word could explain this divine mystery to such an extent. All the unseen, invisible mysteries are unveiled in this allegory. The divine element is being added to our human element making us pearls for the building of God’s eternal expression.
At the time a certain brother was married, he may have been very rough. But after years of abiding in the Lord’s death and enjoying His life-secreting resurrection, even his wife can testify that a great part of her husband has become pearl. Before we came into the enjoyment of Christ in His death and resurrection in the church life, we were very rough, but we can all testify that at least some part of our being has become pearl and that we are in the process of becoming pearls. We are under the secretion of the resurrection life of Christ through His imprisoning death. His death is imprisoning us to keep us in the position of enjoying the secretion of Christ around our entire being.
All the meetings of the church help us to stay in the death of Christ and they keep us in the death of Christ. Do not get away. Stay home. Where is your home and what is your home? Your home is the death of Christ and He is here secreting and moving in His resurrection life. This secretion is His resurrection which is fully realized in His life-giving Spirit. The secretion is the operation of His life-giving Spirit; if you do not have His Spirit, you do not have His resurrection. Also, the way to enjoy His Spirit is to stay in His death. The more you stay in His death, the more you have His Spirit moving in you. This moving of His life-giving Spirit is the secreting of His divine life.
We also must realize that although every gate is a single pearl, this pearl is collectively singular. It is a collective piece of pearl, not just you yourself. It is a group of believers. After this fellowship, I believe that we understand in a more thorough way one more of the basic elements of the New Jerusalem—the pearls.
Christ was wounded for us in order to have us imprisoned in His wound that He might carry out His secretion over us again and again throughout our entire life to make us pearls for the building of God’s eternal habitation. This is for the entry (Matt. 13:45-46; John 3:5). The more we are made pearls, the more we are in the New Jerusalem, and the more we are in the kingdom. We were regenerated to enter into the kingdom of God. To use the allegory of a pearl, however, to illustrate the entering into the kingdom of God by regeneration is much more significant.
I hope that we could follow the Spirit to fully enter into the denotation and significance of the pearls. Then we will no longer be shallow in our understanding of Christ’s death, resurrection, and redemption. We will not be “skating on the ice of the truth” in this matter. We want to get into the depths of this truth to enjoy the riches of Christ.