Revelation 21:21, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures the New Jerusalem with twelve gates each made of a single pearl and its street of pure gold clear as transparent glass, with foundations adorned with precious stones. It belongs to the vision of the beautiful new earth, showing the holy city descending from heaven after the thousand years, with twelve gates guarded by angels, three on each side, and twelve foundations. Jesus Himself opens the pearly gates and leads in the redeemed who have washed their robes in His blood and kept the truth and commandments, welcoming them to behold Paradise with assurance that their conflict is ended. Everyone who enters comes as a conqueror through overcoming self and sin by looking to Jesus, for no sin or defilement can enter, but only those made holy, sanctified and changed, clothed in Christ's righteousness and obedient to all God's commandments including His Sabbath. It is the eternal home and reward of the saints where families dwell forever without parting, sickness, sorrow, pain or death, and its glory calls all now to prepare character, turn from the world, and work to lead others to enter.

Vision Words and Setting

Each of the twelve gates is a single pearl, every separate gate made of one pearl, and the street of the city is pure gold like transparent glass, clear as crystal, while its foundations are adorned with precious stones. The chapter belongs to the beautiful new earth and to the last events of this earth's history, revealed by Christ Himself to John while he was on the Isle of Patmos and given from God in solemn warning to call minds in these last days to the things which will be. Confusion of mind about these coming things is itself a great victory for the adversary.

It describes the holy city, the New Jerusalem, descending from heaven and settling on the place where the redeemed stand, after the thousand years following the second advent, with twelve gates and twelve foundations and an angel at each gate, three gates on each side. The fair city is radiant with light, the promised holy land where the weary pilgrims will dwell. The city is a real heavenly place whose builder and maker is God, with golden gates and sapphire walls, streets of extraordinary beauty, and glorious mansions, longed for as the place where the King will be seen in His beauty.

Its broad streets paved with gold far surpass in attractiveness grand, safe, and convenient earthly streets, with their parks, trees, flowers, and lakes, as seen by imagination in contrast with the heavenly city. Contemplating that city and imagining walking its streets and hearing praise to God and the Lamb turns the mind toward eternal realities and away from earthly approval and temptation. Those called by the Lifegiver from their prison houses will meet loved ones again within that city, where there are no sad partings and sickness never enters, kept in the tender love of Jesus. Just inside the pearly gate are the throne of God and the pure river of water, with the tree of life on either side of the river, whose trunks are like pure transparent gold.

Opening and Welcome

Jesus Himself opens the pearly gate of the city and leads the redeemed over the sea of glass into the holy city. The gate turns on glittering hinges under His own mighty hand. It is thrown open and swings back at the voice of God when the covenant of peace is made.

He admits those who have washed their robes in His blood and stood firmly for His truth. The nations that have kept the truth enter there and behold the Paradise of God.

The pearly gates swing open to welcome the commandment-keepers into the golden city. An abundant entrance is granted to those who remain steadfast in God's service to the end. They have a perfect right in the city because they kept the commandments of God, and with a glad voice richer than any music Jesus bids them enter, welcoming the faithful into His joy and making heaven their home. The full importance and glory of the Sabbath will not be seen until that moment when the gates open.

Those who enter feel they have a right and a perfect right to be there. They are welcomed with the assurance that their conflict is ended. Those who kept their eyes on God and worked with Christ to bring light to others enter through the gates and receive a welcome as God's fellow workers and laborers together with God.

Christ Himself leads His redeemed children, the purchase of His blood, through the pearly gates of the golden city. There He presents to His Father a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. He looks upon His redeemed and sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied in a great salvation purchased by Him. Angels adore Him, bow and cast their glittering crowns before Him, then touch their golden harps and fill heaven with rich music in songs to the Lamb. He leads the redeemed beside the living waters and continues teaching them what they could not have borne to understand on earth.

Conquerors Who Enter

Everyone who passes through the gates of pearl enters as a conqueror. The greatest of all victories is victory over self and over sin. That struggle is painful, yet it is won by looking to Jesus and putting on His robe of righteousness.

Entrance calls for preparation with much overcoming. It calls for striving with all the heart to do God's blessed will. Those who love the truth and walk in it come off conquerors through the Lord Jesus Christ and enter in.

Everyone who enters is a doer of the Word. Such ones share the divine nature and have escaped the corruption of the world through lust. Those who advance in Christ's school in this life will pass through the pearly gates and receive further instruction from the divine Teacher in the higher school.

The gates do not open to display of power but to the meek and lowly. Greatness there is marked by a child's simplicity and love, and those who come to God as children may trust Him to lead and uphold them. Humility is Heaven-born and belongs to the meek and lowly of heart, as seen in the justified publican rather than the self-righteous Pharisee, shining without self-consciousness now in church and world and shining hereafter in the courts of heaven. Entering belongs to all whose faith Jesus authors and finishes, as they walk in humility and meekness and look to Jesus for safety from deception and departure from the faith.

Those who enter are like Jesus, bearing His image, having His mind, imitating His example and living His life. Their character is shown in doing good and caring for others, following Him who served suffering people and gave His life to save the lost. The golden gates will open to receive those who learned on earth to lean on God for guidance and wisdom and for comfort and hope amid loss and affliction. They will be welcomed by the songs of angels, and the tree of life will yield its fruit for them.

Holiness Required for Entry

Nothing impure can exist inside the golden city with its pearly gates, for it is a pure and holy heaven where holy and sinless angels dwell and no sin can be there. Nothing that defiles enters there, where the broad streets paved with gold surpass grand earthly streets in attractiveness. Fitness to dwell there requires holiness and purity of life, turning from all sin, complying with the conditions God has given, separating from the world, and becoming His sons and daughters and members of the royal family. Walking those golden streets belongs with holiness expressed in loving one's neighbor in obedience to God's will, for without holiness no one will see the Lord or enter heaven.

Obedience to all the commandments of God fits people for a place in the home of the royal family where the redeemed meet and part no more, and only God's commandment-keeping people will be numbered with the redeemed. Every saved person who passes through the pearly gates must bear God's signet, the mark of His government tied to loyalty to God's law, especially His Sabbath, and to the everlasting covenant between God and His people. Passing through requires pure principles, a Christlike character, and practical obedience, which learning, influence, strength, or status cannot replace. Merely being able to enter would not give the self-righteous a right to the tree of life, for they reject God's commandments and their binding claims, and because they do not seek to know or serve God here they would be unable to live in His presence and would prefer any place to heaven.

Those who enter the New Jerusalem whose gates are pearls and whose street is transparent gold clear as crystal have been changed and sanctified in character during this life, as the nations that have kept the truth. All who enter the heavenly courts give themselves no rest until they purify their souls by obeying the truth and believing the truth with all their hearts, and unjust, cunning scheming disqualifies because such character if permitted inside would cause a second rebellion. Entrance cannot come without perfection of character, for if imperfect people were allowed to enter a second rebellion would soon arise in heaven. Entrance requires first being tried and chosen and found faithful and true, and upon purification of character rests the only hope of eternal life.

People must prepare a white robe of character to pass through the entrance to the city of God whose gates are pearls and streets are gold. Entering the gates of the New Jerusalem requires the heavenly adornment of Christ's righteousness, which every person who desires to enter must put on. Christ's offered spiritual riches — faith refined by trial, the righteousness represented by white raiment, and spiritual discernment — are the goods needed to enter through those gates. Those riches are imperishable heavenly gifts of faith refined by trial, white raiment, and spiritual sight, received as Christ knocks at each heart and calls people to accept them and be fed with the bread of life.

Thorough conversion is necessary to enter the golden gates opened for the nations that have kept the truth. No one who keeps a proud, jealous, overbearing, cruel, hard, unpitying and loveless character will ever enter the entrance to eternal life. Entering requires repentance and conversion, a new heart of flesh from God, cleansing of even the blackest sins through the blood of Christ when repented of and forsaken, thorough reformation, cleansing from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of God, with self crucified and the life made fragrant with good works. Entry into the city of God is reserved for those who belong to the Lord, whose heart must be cleansed and freed from idols.

Preparation to enter the pearly gates of the heavenly city as the entrance to immortal life comes through humble obedience to God, character transformation, and fitness for service — not pride in human learning or outward display. The pearly gates are the goal of those who seek the future state, but they do not invite speculation about its conditions; they direct attention instead to what God requires in this life. Those who desire to enter must develop a character like Christ's by studying His character in the Word and practicing His virtues. Christ's self-denial and sacrifice, lived out daily, develop faith that works through love and purifies the soul.

No unworthy person will enter the entrance to heaven, the holy city of God, for the gates will open only to those who are saved, who are welcomed to the holy city. Those who enter must cherish in this life the pure, uplifting principles exemplified in the life of Christ, must have the garments of character freed from every spot and wrinkle, must be cleansed from all that defiles, must exemplify the character of Christ and be fashioned in accordance with the divine likeness. Then as the redeemed they enter through the gates into the city to eat of the tree of life that is for the healing of the nations.

Future Home and Reward

The city is the home of the royal family where the redeemed meet and part no more, with no sad partings and no sickness ever entering, kept in the tender love of Jesus. Those called by the Lifegiver from their prison houses will meet loved ones again inside that city of golden gates and sapphire walls. Entering through its gates of pearl is the promised future life with God, and whole families, husband and wife with children, may enter together and dwell there forever. Only those who have accepted Christ and lived in obedience to all His commandments will be numbered with the redeemed there, fitted beforehand by a genuine experience in the truth.

It is the beautiful eternal home, inheritance, and haven of rest where the saints will live joyfully with their Saviour and remain forever. It is fair and all radiant with light with pearly gates, where the weary and lonely pilgrim band will have a dwelling and be homeless no more, joining the pure and blest with palm, robe and crown to rest forever. Its gates stand as though open with the inner glory shining through, and its mansions give a glimpse of heaven to encourage the faithful worker to look beyond earthly life. To enter through its beautiful pearl gates is to enter the golden city of God to dwell there forever in rest.

Entering and walking its streets of gold is a wealth greater than earthly gain or human genius. Those who follow Jesus and are prepared for God's kingdom will one day walk there and see Him face to face. Those who give all to Him in perfect obedience, without conferring with flesh and blood, denying self, lifting Christ's cross at every step, and keeping the Father's commandments, will sit with Christ upon His throne and receive everlasting life and an eternal weight of glory. That life holds the tree of life whose leaves heal the nations, where everything is lovely with no sickness, no sorrow, no pain and no death, and where life measures with the life of God.

The golden streets are the abundant riches God keeps for those who overcome. They are the future reward offered to those now contending with habit and perverted appetite, who come out and are separate, touch nothing unclean, cleanse all filthiness of flesh and spirit, connect with heaven, and become children of the heavenly King. Such will have the privilege of entering the city, partaking of the tree of life, and standing victorious with a crown of immortal glory, a crown of life. That promise calls for working for one another and working determinedly to bring up youth rightly, with angels assisting in schools and the Holy Spirit working with parents in every effort to save souls.

The life beyond is a place of happiness where death, sickness, pain and sorrow cannot enter, and where the redeemed will see the King in His glory. Walking the streets of gold is the end reward after the weary Christian pilgrimage is finished. Feet that run in the way of God's commandments and travel the whole length of the Christian road will lay off their armor at the feet of the Redeemer, stand upon Mount Zion, and walk the streets of gold. Those golden streets are the home the faithful hope to enter when Jesus comes.

Entering through the pearly gates means welcoming and everlasting life with Christ, where the redeemed receive immortal glory and praise the Lamb. It is the reward of the faithful who hear Christ welcome them into His joy. After the resurrection Christ gathers the righteous dead and living and takes them to the city, and the nations that have kept the truth enter through its gates that swing open for them. The faithful will go up to the heavenly city at the Lord's coming and pass through to sing the song of redemption.

Present Warning and Preparation

The streets of pure gold do not make it right for fallen mortals to wear gold to improve appearance or to gain influence in the world. The splendor of the heavenly city is distinct from decorating fallen human bodies, and to appeal to its golden street, or to the glorious adornment of Solomon's temple, ignores humanity's fallen condition and the suffering and death by which sinners were redeemed. Remembrance of that cost should lead to humility and self-abasement, and those who hope to be with Christ in heaven must be like the meek, crucified Christ on earth. That likeness means refusing to please self and enjoy the world, leaving what belongs to the world in order to overcome it.

The chapter is to be read as a solemn view of eternal life in contrast with the fate of the wicked. Its purity and glory cannot be endured by those who refuse Christ's way. The pearly gates are the entrance to heaven and to the better life and immortal inheritance, which those who indulge destructive appetites and refuse self-denial will not enter and in which they have no part.

The gold-paved streets show the better-than-earthly reward prepared for those who build character on the living Word. The city is very beautiful and worth striving for, open to everyone including children, and God's desire that all reach it is proved by His giving Jesus, whom those cast out of heaven for refusing Jesus as Head and God as Father would not bear on earth. Contemplating its glorious mansions, imagining walking its streets and hearing praise to God and the Lamb, turns the mind toward eternal realities and away from earthly approval and temptation.

God's people are now preparing to enter the pearly gates by doing real missionary work with the same sympathy Christ felt for humanity. That preparation means loving neighbor as self in carrying out the principles of God's law, finishing God's work in the earth, standing in one's lot and place, raising the warning wherever led, bearing the divine impress on all words and business transactions, and letting light shine in the surrounding community. Following the Lord and setting a godly example can help lead others to the gates, and those encouraged by kindness, prayer, and support will share in the overcomer's reward.

The glory shown should lead every believing soul to seek earnestly for eternal life. That seeking calls for working for one another and working determinedly to bring up youth rightly, so they have the crown of life and are overcomers. Angels assist in schools in educating boys and girls, and the Holy Spirit works with all efforts to save souls, with fathers and mothers taking hold of the work.