Praise the Lord that He is not only the wall but also the gate. As the wall He excludes us and condemns us, but as the gate He brings us into God’s building. If we are in the sphere of God’s building today, it is because Christ as the gate has brought us in.
Christ is our gate, our door. In John 14:6 the Lord Jesus tells us that He is the way to the Father. Apart from Him, no one can come to the Father. Christ is the gateway for us to enter into God and into God’s interests, God’s building, and God’s kingdom.
We may realize that Christ is the door, the gate, but we may not know Christ as the gate in a detailed way. Ezekiel, however, saw the details concerning Christ as the gate.
The depth of the gate, from the front to the rear, is fifty cubits. The breadth of the gate, from side to side, is twenty-five cubits. These numbers are both multiples of five, the number of responsibility.
In front of the gate is a stair of seven steps. The steps of ascent are quite high, indicating that in order to get into the building, we need to go up. Whenever a person believes in the Lord Jesus, he has the sense that he is going up. But when we participate in certain worldly amusements, we have the sense that we are going down. Whenever we come to the Lord Jesus, we sense that we are on a staircase going up.
The gate is composed of four sections: the outer threshold, the passage, the inner threshold, and the porch. There are three thresholds, which are the outer threshold, the inner threshold, and a passage between these two which may be considered a hallway. The middle part, the passage, is also called a threshold, but as a help to our understanding we may use the word passage. Thus, here we have the outer threshold, the passage, the inner threshold, and the porch. The porch is somewhat like a lobby to the temple. By passing through the outer threshold, the passage, the inner threshold, and the lobby, one can enter into the temple. Then one must take another flight of stairs. This time the ascent is even higher, being eight steps rather than seven.
By referring to figure 2, which is a drawing of the gate detail, we can see that within the gate is the entry of the gate, which is exactly ten cubits wide. It is significant that the opening of the entrance is ten cubits in width. In the Bible the number ten first refers to the Ten Commandments. Whatever the Ten Commandments require, the entry of the gate fulfills. The width of the entry is exactly the span of the Ten Commandments. This indicates that the Lord Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the Ten Commandments. When we are faced with the Ten Commandments, we are excluded by them. However, the Lord Jesus was able to fulfill every commandment, and He has become the gate for us to enter into God’s building.
Whereas the entry, or opening, of the gate is ten cubits wide, the gate itself is thirteen cubits wide. On both sides of the gate, the wall measures one and a half cubits. By adding the two together, we have three cubits. Three is the number of the Triune God and also the number of resurrection. Here the three is divided, with one and a half on each side. I would ask you to remember that in the tabernacle the standing boards were each one and a half cubits wide and that two boards formed one unit of three cubits. All these numbers are significant. They indicate that the Lord Jesus, who fulfills all the requirements of the Ten Commandments, is the Triune God who became a man, was put to death, and was resurrected. In His death Christ was “split,” cut into halves, and then He was resurrected.