And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
The description of the city has moved from its wall and foundations to its gates and its street. Now the materials are ones no builder could buy: a gate cut from a single pearl, and gold you can see through.
Materials Above Nature
One writer says the difference between this city and the Jerusalem on earth tells us how to read the passage:
William KellyThe fair conclusion from God's word is this. Unlike the Jerusalem in Palestine, this city is not of man and not of the earth. It is heavenly and divine. So it has the glory of God, and God describes it in pictures that go deliberately beyond anything in the first creation... Think of jasper clear as crystal, gold transparent as glass, and each gate of "one pearl"! It is all above nature... We must not think of material beauty in the heavenly city; it is a symbolic description.
Why a Pearl
One writer connects the pearl gates to a story Jesus told about a merchant. He asks who is buying and who is bought:
W. T. P. WolstonWhy was every gate a pearl? Remember the heavenly merchant in Matthew 13. He was "seeking fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." You may say that is a sinner seeking the Saviour. Really? A sinner selling? What has a sinner got to sell but his sins? No — the pearl of great price is not Christ, but the Church, the Church in its unity. Christ is the one who went and sold all that He had. He gave up everything for the Church.
A diver must also bring a pearl up from the sea, and the shell it grew in does not survive. Another writer builds the picture on that detail:
Frederick W GrantThe pearl is lifted out of the deep sea. It is taken out of the rough shell it first grew in, and the creature that gave it life dies in the taking. So the pearl is a fitting picture of those who have been drawn out of the sea of the nations, and out of their rough natural condition, at the cost of the life of Him in whom they were seen and chosen before the foundation of the world.
Grace Standing at Every Entrance
A pearl forms around something that does not belong there. One writer turns that fact into the meaning of the gate, and then notes what the gate is for:
L. M. GrantA 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 makes a substance called "nacre," or mother of pearl. Layer after layer it wraps the offending object, until it builds up into a beautiful pearl. We are the offending object. But God's grace covers us and makes us accepted "in Christ," with a beauty that delights His heart of love... But grace is not selfish: it delights to show itself to others, as these open gates suggest.
Standing on Purity
The street is what the citizens walk on. One writer contrasts that with now, when the Lord still washes His disciples' feet:
J. N. DarbyThe street of the city is of pure gold, like transparent glass; no defilement is any longer possible. Jesus will no more have to wash our feet in order that we may enter into the presence of God for our worship. In the glory we shall be standing on purity... This is great rest to anyone who loves holiness.
Where Business Is Done
A street is not just a surface. It is where a city's dealings happen, and that is exactly what makes the golden street striking:
Frederick W GrantIn the east above all, the street is the place of trade. It is where need and greed keep meeting. But here every circumstance, every dealing, the whole setting, is pure holiness and truth. It is fit for the presence of God, and filled with it.
One Street
The text speaks of the street, singular, and one writer builds on that:
A. J. PollockThe city has only one street — there will be no systems, sects, divisions and subdivisions there. The prayer of our Lord, "that they may all be one" (John 17:21), will yet be answered in glory. Dwelling on this with joy would do much to stir up a longing in us now, by God's Spirit, for the unity of God's people.
Summary
- Symbol, not masonry. Gold you can see through and a gate carved from one pearl are pictures beyond anything in the first creation. No builder could make them, and that is the clue: read them as symbols.
- Price. One writer reads the merchant who sold all He had as Christ, and the pearl He bought as the Church — not a sinner buying the Saviour.
- Grace. The pearl forms by covering an intruding object layer on layer — a picture of offenders covered and made beautiful.
- Reach. Twelve gates of pearl stand open, because grace does not keep its beauty to itself.
- Result. The street of everyday dealings holds no defilement — and being one street, it holds no division either.