Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16.18.
Gates serve as entrance and exit. Neither Hades nor death can hold on to believers or the church, because the incorruptible life has already been manifested in them (see 2 Tim. 1.10). This incorruptible life has come out of Hades. For the Lord has the authority to have His life enter in and exit out of Hades at will. Hades has no power to hold back this life. And what has been deposited in the believer is the very same life. For this reason, Hades cannot withhold us either. However vicious the environment—trial, persecution, malice, murder, and so forth—and though we may be walled in on all sides, we shall have a life which can neither be withheld nor overcome by any environment.