Revelation 21:9-14 And there came to me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying… Three gates on each side of the celestial quadrangle. So much as to the accessibility of the heavenly city. Christ is Himself gateway impersonated, what Scripture calls "open door." Three gates in each wall. Christ is not only one gate; He is all the gates, and His multiplicity matches our diversity. So that each man to be saved will be saved by his own particular Christ, and enter the kingdom through his own special private portal. We believe in the same Christ, and yet we have not the same belief in Christ — like two men standing on the opposite side of a hill, who have a view of the same hill, but not the same view of the hill. We are in that respect like different kinds of flowers growing out in the sunshine; one flower when it is touched by white light will extract from the white light one particular tint, another flower will extract another particular tint from the same white light, So while we all in a way believe in Christ we each believe in our own way, and He is not the same to any two of us. This leads on to say that Christ as you apprehend Him — not as I apprehend Him, not as your neighbour apprehends Him, hut Christ as you apprehend Him — is your open door. Doubtless, as we come to know Him better and to enter more deeply into the intimacies of His character and spirit, our conceptions of Him will have more and more in common, and we shall draw nearer and nearer to each other in our views and experience of Him. Three gates on a side. "The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon Him." Christ, in the conception that you already have of Him, is your gate; no hunting necessary in order to find it; no waiting requisite. The Bible would not say, "Choose ye this day" if there were anything to wait for. Such words as "now" and "to-day" would have to be left out if the gate were anywhere but directly in front of you. This Biblical idea of "to-day" just matches this apocalyptic idea of three gates on a side, every man's gate close to him. The object of this is not to encourage the notion that it makes no difference how little idea a man has of Christ. Our only point is that the veriest scintilla of an idea, if made available, is enough to begin with. Supposing in a dark, starless night you become lost in the woods. The glimmer of a distant candle reaches your eye, and you are not lost any longer. There may not be light enough about it to show you where you are, but you are not lost any more because there is light enough about it to give you a direction. Any smallest, feeblest conception you may have of Christ will answer every purpose if only you will treat it in the same way that you would treat what appeared to be the glimmer of a distant candle falling upon your eye by night in the midst of a black forest. Light is a sure guide, because, unlike sound, it goes in straight lines. And wherever and howsoever far out upon the circumference of Christ's character you take your position and begin threading inward any one of its radiating lines, you are moving by a line as straight as a sunbeam toward the heart and centre of the entire matter. When the disciples were bidden by Christ to follow Him, clearly that meant to them at the outset little more than patterning their fives after Him, going where He went, and doing what He did. That was where they first took hold of the matter. Anything like mere imitation seems mostly to disappear from their life in its later manifestations and farther developments; but it was not much but imitation to begin with. They commenced by obeying Him and trying to be like Him. Christ's early instruction to them was in this line. Now, it must needs be said that this obediently doing what God in Christ enjoins upon us, important and indispensable as of course it is, is by no manner of means the best and most distinctive part of the Christian matter. At the same time there are two things to be said about it that are practical and that are in close line with our present thought. The first is that while studiously doing as Christ bids us is not the best part of the Lord's matter, it is singularly educating, and contributes with wonderful facility to initiate us into the best part of the Lord's matter. Obedience to Christ is only gateway so far as relates to the full meaning of Christ and of Christian life, but it is gateway that portals one of the central avenues conducting directly to meanings that are more essential and complete. The other point is that this matter of taking Christ's commands and doing them is not only gateway, but gateway that opens itself immediately in our face. We have not to search around in order to find it. The door is directly in front of us. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. |
    |