Section 11
Christ, as the Son of Man with His humanity, is the ladder which is set up on the earth and leads to heaven, keeping heaven open to earth and joining earth to heaven for the house of God. Jacob poured oil (the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the last Person of the Triune God to reach man) upon the stone (symbol of the transformed man) that it might be the house of God. Here in John 1 are the Spirit (v. 32) and the stone (v. 42) for the house of God with Christ and His humanity. Where these are, there is an open heaven. Thus Christ, as a man, is the ladder that opens the heav ens and joins earth to heaven and brings heaven to earth. Wherever Christ is in His humanity, there is the gate of heaven, there is Bethel, the building of God's house with all the stones, that is, with all the transformed persons.
As the introduction to the Gospel of John, John 1 introduces Christ as both the Son of God (vv. 34, 49) and the Son of Man (v. 51). Nathan ael recognized Him as the Son of God and addressed Him as such (v. 49), but Christ said to Nathanael that He was the Son of Man (v. 51). The Son of God is God with the divine nature— divinity. The Son of Man is man with a human nature—humanity. For declaring God (v. 18) and for bringing God to man and man to God, He