Prayer: Lord, how we worship You for Your New Testament economy. Lord, we thank You for the revelation conveyed in Your written Word. How we thank You that You have opened up this Word to us in these last days. Lord, we even thank You for all the churches with so many seeking saints to be Your audience. Lord, this is the best oracle for You to speak Your word. We are waiting on You. We thank You for Your cleansing blood that cleanses all of us all the time and has brought us into Yourself. Lord, grant us Your rich anointing. Visit everyone, Lord. We bring all the needs to You. Lord, give us the instant word that meets our need. Grant us a word to everybody that all our need might be fully met by Yourself. Lord, do anoint us. O Lord Jesus—glorify the Father that the Father may glorify You. Lord, give us the understanding. Remove all the veils. Lord, take away all the covering. Give us liberty, freedom, and the full release that we may have the insight to look into Your Word and to get into its depths. Lord, have mercy upon us that we all may receive new grace. Lord, we need You in a new way, in a refreshing way, and in every way. Defeat the enemy and shame him. Grant Your rich blessing upon everyone who is seeking You. Lord, we trust in You. How we love Your dear Name, and in this Name we look unto You. Amen.
In this chapter we will focus our attention on the gates of the New Jerusalem. In order to enter into the full significance of the New Jerusalem we need to be unveiled to see the meaning of the three gates on the four sides of the holy city. To see the significance of the gates we need an adequate understanding of nearly the entire Bible. We have seen that in the first verse of the first chapter of the Bible the first divine title for God is Elohim, and according to Hebrew Elohim is a noun in plural number. Also, in Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image.” In this verse the plural pronoun “us” is ascribed to the unique God. This implies that the Triune God, from eternity past, is Triune in order to bring His created man into Himself. Actually, Triune does not mean three in one, but three-one. God is one and yet three, and He is three yet still one. He is the three-one God, the Triune God. Verse 26 of Genesis 1 is actually a direct continuation of verse 1, as far as we human beings are concerned. The Triune God, Elohim, had a conference with Himself to make man in His own image with the purpose that one day He would bring this man into Himself. At the conclusion of the Bible, we see that the Triune God Himself is the very entrance for man to enter into Him.
In the New Testament, the Triune God is our entrance into Himself. Luke 15 unveils the love of the Triune God toward sinners by the parable of a good shepherd (vv. 1-7), by the parable of a seeking woman (vv. 8-10), and by the parable of a loving father (vv. 11-32). The shepherd refers to the Son who came to seek the fallen sinners, the woman refers to the Holy Spirit who is searching the sinners within themselves, and the Father receives the repenting and returned sinner as a certain man receives his prodigal son. In these three parables we see the Trinity—the Son as the seeking shepherd, the Spirit as the searching woman, and the Father as the loving and receiving father.
In these three parables the sinner is illustrated as a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a prodigal son who gives up the father and the rich inheritance in the father’s house. Eventually, the sheep was brought back, the coin was found, and the prodigal son was brought back to the father and to the father’s house to enjoy a feast. This is the entrance into the kingdom of God which consummates in the New Jerusalem. These three parables portray a complete triune entrance. It is one entrance, but in three steps. If the Son had never come to die on the cross, there would be no basis for us to enter into the kingdom of God. By dying on the cross, He laid the foundation to open up the gates. Following the Son’s redemption, the Spirit came, not to find us outwardly, but to search us inwardly. The Son died on the cross to find us outwardly, but the Spirit came to seek us by searching within our being. All of us who have been regenerated have had this experience. Due to the Spirit’s inner searching, we repented and came to our senses. We realized that we were foolish to be a prodigal son eating the husks. Through the searching of the Spirit, we woke up and repented and came back to the Father. Based upon the Son’s redemption and through the Spirit’s searching the Father was ready to receive us back into His house to enjoy Him and to enjoy His rich inheritance. This is our triune entrance.