By John Thiel, The Power of the Cross Conference, Study 9, mp3
We have been contemplating the power of the cross.
Nathaniel was contemplating what he had experienced at the baptism of Jesus and by all the baptisms of John the Baptist.
John 1:45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
As Jesus addressed Nathaniel, Nathaniel was taken aback.
John 1:48 Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. 49 Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.
What caused Nathaniel to utter that? Jesus touches him on that point.
John 1:50 Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.
It is a great thing to discover that somebody has known of me before I even knew him. That was something that really touched Nathaniel’s heart, but Jesus said there is something bigger than that. There is something that you’re going to discover that is greater than what you have experienced so far.
John 1:51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
Here is a profound message that Jesus is giving to Nathaniel and to all of us that the greatest thing to discover, far greater than all the overtures of miraculous impact that we often see in Christianity. Even Satan can give people that sense, but here is something greater. Jesus is the ladder upon which angels communicate from heaven to earth. He said you will see this. This is the greatest thing that we are to open our hearts to. By God’s grace may He help us to see this amazing picture of Jesus.
What Is The Ladder?
As we have studied the power of the cross, we have seen the atonement of Jesus; we have seen Him coming very close to us. We will have another look at this and learn from this what we may do in reference to Jesus the ladder.
In the vision the plan of redemption was presented to Jacob, not fully, but in such parts as were essential to him at that time. The mystic ladder revealed to him in his dream was the same to which Christ referred in His conversation with Nathanael. Said He, “Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” John 1:51. {PP 184.2}
Jacob’s vision is what Jesus is referring to. Jacob in his dream saw the ladder and angels going up and down. This was the ladder that depicted the plan of redemption that was presented to Jacob.
The ladder represents Jesus, the appointed medium of communication. Had He not with His own merits bridged the gulf that sin had made, the ministering angels could have held no communion with fallen man. Christ connects man in his weakness and helplessness with the source of infinite power. {PP 184.2}
All this was revealed to Jacob in his dream. Although his mind at once grasped a part of the revelation, its great and mysterious truths were the study of his lifetime, and unfolded to his understanding more and more. {PP 184.3}
These are the words that Jesus uttered to Nathaniel. You will see greater things than just what I was unfolding to you in the fact that I saw you under the fig tree. The wonderful sense of somebody knowing my thoughts before he even knows me is an amazing discovery but He said greater things are to unfold to you, and in our own minds we are called upon to see a mystery unfolding to us, as to Jacob. Grasp the thought! The ladder – Jesus is that ladder. As you contemplate the ladder, what is to unfold to our minds? May God help us to grasp the unfolding of this message of Jacob’s ladder so that it will become more and more powerful to us.
The ideal of Christian character is Christlikeness. As the Son of man was perfect in His life, so His followers are to be perfect in their life. {DA 311.4}
Now here comes the striking impact. What is it that we are to reach? We are to reach perfection. This is the very thing that people are crumbling under in these last days. We cannot be perfect like Jesus was; look at me I am failing miserably. This is the ideal to reach for. His followers are to be perfect in their life as Christ was in His.
Jesus was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh, even as we are. He was hungry and thirsty and weary. He was sustained by food and refreshed by sleep. He shared the lot of man; yet He was the blameless Son of God. He was God in the flesh. His character is to be ours. The Lord says of those who believe in Him, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” 2 Corinthians 6:16. {DA 311.4}
This is what we need to reach; Christlike character because Jesus developed a character here on earth as one with us. Can you see we need to understand the power that will bring us there?
Christ is the ladder that Jacob saw, the base resting on the earth, and the topmost round reaching to the gate of heaven, to the very threshold of glory. If that ladder had failed by a single step of reaching the earth, we should have been lost. But Christ reaches us where we are. {DA 311.5}
He was the ladder. By not a single step must He miss out on touching us. He was the ladder; the lowest rung came and touched us where we were. Christ reaches us where we are.
He took our nature and overcame, that we through taking His nature might overcome. Made “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), He lived a sinless life. Now by His divinity He lays hold upon the throne of heaven, while by His humanity He reaches us. He bids us by faith in Him attain to the glory of the character of God. Therefore are we to be perfect, even as our “Father which is in heaven is perfect.” {DA 311.5}
Here lies the mystery of redemption. The ladder is Jesus. Not by a single rung must He fail to meet us. In His humanity He comes right down into the bottom of the pit and the ladder reaches all the way up to God Himself; the character we are to reach.
Right from the beginning we have been delving into this and here at the end we are looking at the ladder. We are culminating the very end of the process that we are to finally reach which is perfection of character. We start from the bottom rung of the ladder where it touches us to the uppermost rung, Christian perfection.
As we meditate upon this ladder, when do we use a ladder? What is a ladder for? It is to climb from a low spot to a high spot. If somebody has fallen into a deep pit, a ladder is sent down to reach the person in the depth of the pit so that the person in the pit is called upon to start climbing out of the pit. There is another picture. Sometimes people can hardly manage to climb up a ladder and a rope or a chain is let down so that the person in the pit can be reached where he is. It has to come all the way down. If it doesn’t touch the person who is in the bottom of the pit can he get a hold of it? Not at all.
It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit of sin in which we are sunken. SC 18.1}
When you fall into a pit it’s pretty wet in there. When Jeremiah was let down into the dungeon he came down with a squelch, it was muddy and wet up to his knees. The pit in which we have sunken is the pit of sin. It’s a terrible condition which we cannot help ourselves to get out of.
Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Job 14:4; Romans 8:7. Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they are powerless. {SC 18.1}
Did you notice education, effort, the exercise of the will, these are important exercises. However, when it comes to the bottom of the pit where we are, is there anything we can do? We are stuck in the mud. Here we are powerless. The carnal mind, the mind that is fleshly, cannot change.
They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. { SC 18.1}
What is that power? It’s what we have been studying, the power of the cross.
That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness. {SC 18.1}
There we are grovelling at the bottom of the pit of fleshly sinful mindedness and we cannot rid ourselves or change our pattern of thinking, so Jesus, the ladder, had to come down and not by a single rung of the ladder must He fail in touching us where we are. The ladder had to be let down from the top and not dangle part of the way up; it had to come, squelch down into the bottom of the pit to reach us exactly where we are. We can’t even move ourselves out of our muddy condition. It must come and touch us where we are. We are dealing with the mind and the heart that is so much paralysed by sin. We have been wounded by sin to such a degree.
We have been great sinners, but Christ died that we might be forgiven. The merits of His sacrifice are sufficient to present to the Father in our behalf. Those to whom He has forgiven most will love Him most, and will stand nearest to His throne to praise Him for His great love and infinite sacrifice. It is when we most fully comprehend the love of God that we best realize the sinfulness of sin. When we see the length of the chain that was let down for us, when we understand something of the infinite sacrifice that Christ has made in our behalf, the heart is melted with tenderness and contrition. {SC 35.4}
When Jesus was talking to Nathaniel, He said you will see greater things than what I have just given you to touch, to feel. You will see the Son of man, the ladder, you will see Him as the length of the chain that was let down, you will see Him coming right down where you are and when you feel your utter sinfulness, your absolute hopelessness and you see God’s love coming and touching you in the most depraved position that you are, this deep sense of the length of the chain that was sent down for you will do something to you. It will change something inside of us. In our lethargy, in our condition of sinful hopeless muddiness, something will change when we see the ladder, when we see the chain, the love of God in that story.
The example of this is the woman that was caught in adultery, Mary. She really believed she was lost. She was waiting for the first stone to be cast and in that depressing, hopeless sense she was waiting. As she looked up these men were all gone and only Jesus was there. When, fully overwhelmed with her deep hopeless condition, Jesus said, where are your accusers? No where, Lord. Neither do I accuse you. What happened to Mary? She broke down, she realised now the love and she became the most devoted follower of Jesus Christ of all the others that were around Him. She knew something, she experienced something and this is what we all need to experience; the deep touch of the love of God in our own lives that will mould us, that will lift us out of the miry clay of our carnal sinful mind. She could not lift herself; she could not change her life. Christ melted her heart.
We all are in this pit of sin, the bottom rung of the ladder. That bottom rung of the ladder touched the sinner where he was. Jesus descended to the bottom of the pit. We need to see this; we need to contemplate this so that we become enamoured, that we may become enthralled with the love that makes the change. We cannot change any other way. From a painful process Jesus commenced travelling down the ladder of himself. The painful process of Jesus becoming a little seed into the womb of Mary; that was our first study. He made Himself of no reputation; He commenced His downward journey.
Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
In other words, He didn’t want to hang onto that. He let Himself down out of that.
Philippians 2:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
That wasn’t enough; he had to come lower still.
Philippians 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
That even the death of the cross must be our study to see the bottom rung of that ladder. We have gone right through the process of the power of the cross in our studies and we want to pick it up again and appreciate; when He was at the cross He was obedient even unto the death of the cross. What was the death of the cross? He said my God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? We are looking at the bottom rung of the ladder, we are looking at the whole length of which he came down and not by a single rung short of touching us. What is the bottom rung of the ladder? My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? What is the answer to that, to help us understand the length of the chain?
Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
Wasn’t God the Father with Jesus there? He was right there. Why did Jesus cry why hast Thou forsaken me?
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid [his] face from you, that he will not hear.
Is this the answer to Christ’s experience? Because we don’t think deeply enough to see the chain that was let down we miss the point. When we cry out I am lost, I don’t feel God, God is not with me anymore. Why have you forsaken me? Jesus is right there in that very experience with us. That is the bottom rung of the ladder that touches us in our experience. We don’t often permit ourselves to actually surrender ourselves to the reality in which Christ called out why have you forsaken me? It was because my sins that have separated between me and God separated the sense of God’s presence with Him. When I am in that deplorable condition, like Mary, by heart is touched. What? My sins were His sins? This is the part that is never enlarged to the mind of the common Christian today. This is what we needs to be unfolded to us.
Psalm 40:7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book [it is] written of me,
Jesus came; He came down as a chain. Now we look at the length of it. What is the bottom length of it?
Psalm 40:12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. .
Jesus expressed separation from the Father because you and I have a conscious sense of separation from the Father because of our sins. The description here is so plain; mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up.
So there we are in the bottom of the pit, not able to look up and there is the ladder touching me as Jesus cried exactly like that. He touched us where we are when we can’t look up. As we are feeling the touch of Jesus, the chain or the ladder, something changes within. We experience a mind of Christ at the bottom rung in the mud.
If you were drowning; have you heard of a man drowning clinging to a straw? When a person drowns and he feels that he is dying, he will grab for anything that is there and he will hang on tight even if it’s a straw thinking it might save him. We are all drowning human beings in the bottom of the pit in the mud. There is a chain dangling right there and if you are drowning and a chain is there you will grab it won’t you? That chain has been let down; it’s Jesus Christ. Grab hold of Him. When we feel condemned by the law, when we feel we are drowning in our sins, don’t just lament the fact. I see this frequently; people lament about their condition. Cease doing that. I am drowning yes. I have been bitten by the serpent, I have been weakened by sin, I can’t do anything but I can as I am drowning, take hold of the chain that is sent down below. Instead of saying, oh I’m so sinfully helpless, carrying on but not taking hold of the help, the chain is right there.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Anyone who believes means anyone that will clutch and hold on tight will not perish. It’s so simple. I am perishing, I’m drowning, the chain is let down; all that I have to do is grab it where I am, my immediate proximity. It’s right there next to me. Take hold of it as did Mary and Jacob. Do you remember how he clutched? He had seen the dream and gone through all his experiences after he had deceived his brother (he was a supplanter) and then he saw all the experiences with getting his wife and got deceived there; he saw the whole drama and then he was on his way after all those years back to Esau and he knew that Esau was coming. He was drowning. He was in a desperate condition and in his desperate condition he went out after he had sent them all away in the night to spend time in contemplation. What happened? Somebody touched him. He whipped around and began to fight until he realised who He was.
Jacob “had power over the Angel, and prevailed.” Hosea 12:4. Through humiliation, repentance, and self-surrender, this sinful, erring mortal prevailed with the Majesty of heaven. He had fastened his trembling grasp upon the promises of God, and the heart of Infinite Love could not turn away the sinner’s plea. {PP 197.1}
Jacob had a trembling grasp. In the midst of the morass of all that goes on in the mind with all the depression, guilt and overwhelming sense of weakness and I can’t achieve, there is the picture of Jesus touching me where I am as it was Jesus in Jacob’s experience. As we see Jesus with me in my experience, instead of lamenting and dying, take hold of it with a grasp upon the promises of God as Jesus did right there at the cross. He took hold of His knowledge of God’s mercy and He would not let Him go. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. I trust you, I cling to you.
There Jesus gave us the very answer in the midst of our beholding Him suffering with us He shows us how to deal with it as did Jacob. The infinite love of God, the heart of infinite love cannot turn away from the sinner’s plea. When Jesus was there with all our sins upon Him, the Father did not turn away from him. If He was riddled with sins that were more than the hair of His head and the Father did not let Him go, will He let you and me go? He demonstrated that He won’t. This is the path of our meditation that is so essential so that our heart is touched with the mercy and love of God to the most depraved sinner.
Fastening his trembling grasp, Jacob took hold of Jesus and said I will not let you go unless you bless me. Do you do that when you are overwhelmed with your depraved condition when the reality of sin becomes real to us, a state of hopelessness?
Jacob had received the blessing for which his soul had longed. His sin as a supplanter and deceiver had been pardoned. The crisis in his life was past. Doubt, perplexity, and remorse had embittered his existence, but now all was changed; and sweet was the peace of reconciliation with God. Jacob no longer feared to meet his brother. God, who had forgiven his sin, could move the heart of Esau also to accept his humiliation and repentance. {PP 198.1}
The change from doubt, perplexity and remorse to a peace that passes understanding is what is found at the bottom rung of the ladder. We hang onto that and we take the comfort that Jacob did where we know like with Jesus who is the greatest example, the Father lifted Him out of the pit and we together with Him if we hang onto Him. All we are to do is to hang onto Jesus and that beautiful forgiveness and then what happened to Jesus will happen to us because we are in Christ relying on the Father.
Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, [and] established my goings.
Jesus was lifted by the Father. He was the chain, He was the ladder and it was as He clung to the chain, as He clung to the ladder the ladder and the chain lifted Him out of the mud. This is to be our experience. This is the answer to all our perplexity.
Psalm 40:3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, [even] praise unto our God: many shall see [it], and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed [is] that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
There are many lies out there. They are the lies that do not embark on Jesus as being at the bottom rung of the ladder with us. They trust in lies, they trust in lies of salvation different to what it actually is. We are to see Jesus one with us to relieve us and to give us peace at the bottom rung of the ladder. There is the turning point at the bottom rung of the ladder if we cling to that ladder. Jesus came here to absorb us as sinners into Himself.
Climbing the Ladder
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ,
What did Jesus do with our sins in Him? He cried to the Father and the Father lifted Him out. If we are in Christ:
2 Corinthians 5:17 …[he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
When these beautiful truths sink into some people’s lives, they go ahh! Now they are at peace and unfortunately they stay there. We are saved, we have no more need to fear. We are saved and we are still in the mud, just clinging to the ladder. A ladder is meant to be climbed but there are many Christians who say I am saved and are still there at the bottom rung. You will see this unfolding as we look at this ladder.
If we are in Christ we are new creatures. Yes we are, now what? All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. That’s where we can get this peace from and now hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. It’s been given us now. What are we to do with the ministry of reconciliation? We are to start climbing. Instead of lying there and just basking like the man with the palsy. Do you remember how he was lowered down on the bed in front of Jesus and Jesus said yes, I have forgiven your sins and he just lay back and said aahh. Was that the end? Jesus said get up, take up your bed and go. He had to get up, he didn’t just lie there. If he lay there, he would have still been lying there until death. The fact is that yes, his sins are forgiven, and now the work is to go on to perfection. He was to be lifted up from glory to glory, isn’t that what the Scripture says, by the Spirit of the Lord?
The first exercise at the bottom rung of the ladder is the action of faith. What is the next rung and the one after that, and what’s the one after that? We want to conclude our study with the climbing. We see the mercy of the chain that has been let down, the ladder touching us where we are and now comforted by clutching onto that ladder, we are now relieved if we will clutch hold of it like Jacob did. We are now in touch with Jesus to continue the path.
2 Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
If Jesus was the ladder, as we read it, the human and the divine was in the ladder, wasn’t it? If you are taking hold of the human experience of Jesus you are also taking hold of the divine. We are made partakers of the divine nature as we clasp hold of this.
2 Peter 1:4 …having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5 And beside this, giving all diligence,
Besides clinging to the ladder, besides receiving the connection of the divine nature with the human, besides this, what are we to do? Giving all diligence.
2 Peter 1:5 add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
God is love. That is the top rung of the ladder. We have been given a ladder here.
2 Peter 1:8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make [you that ye shall] neither [be] barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And how this is accomplished, Christ has shown us.
By what means did He overcome in the conflict with Satan? By the word of God. Only by the word could He resist temptation. {DA 123.4}
How is this done? We are to go by the Word of God. What is that? Adding to your faith. The bottom rung of the ladder is faith; the faith of Jesus as He clung to the Father and we cling together with Jesus. Now add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience. This is the climbing work now.
Point the youth to Peter’s ladder of eight rounds, and place their feet, not on the highest round, but on the lowest, and with earnest solicitation urge them to climb to the very top. {6T 147.1}
Isn’t that what we were doing in our meditation? Get hold of the lowest rung, put your feet on it and exercise your faith that Jesus is touching you where you are. Surrender; put your feet on it and then climb.
Christ, who connects earth with heaven, is the ladder. The base is planted firmly on the earth in His humanity; the topmost round reaches to the throne of God in His divinity. The humanity of Christ embraces fallen humanity, while His divinity lays hold upon the throne of God. We are saved by climbing round after round of the ladder, looking to Christ, clinging to Christ, mounting step by step to the height of Christ, so that He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity are the rounds of this ladder. All these graces are to be manifested in the Christian character; {6T 147.2}
But where do we start? We start on faith. These characteristics will be revealed progressively, not all at once. Some people think I don’t have those beautiful characteristics; I’m not patient or temperate. I am not a loving and loveable Christian all the time, so where am I? If you start at the bottom rung of the ladder you will climb there. You will get there, just climb; take hold of Jesus and look at Him. Study Him and you will climb just like we studied Him as He reaches us at the bottom rung of the ladder.
If we ever reach heaven, it will be by linking our souls to Christ, leaning upon Him, {6T 148.1}
That ladder is something you will be leaning on. You will be hanging on to the sides of the ladder and putting your feet on the next rung and then up the ladder. You know what it’s like climbing a very high ladder, it gets pretty dizzy up there and you have to cling on tight and continue to put your feet on the next rung.
…and cutting loose from the world, its follies and enchantments. There must be on our part a spiritual co-operation with the heavenly intelligences. {6T 148.1}
There must be on our part a spiritual co-operation with the heavenly intelligences who are climbing up and down anyway. The heavenly intelligences, angels, are there to help us.
We must believe and work and pray and watch and wait. As the purchase of the Son of God, we are His property, and everyone should have an education in the school of Christ. {6T 148.1}
This is part of the exercise, the effort of holding onto Christ but we must start at the bottom and move on upwards. This is not done all at once. Sr White repeats that many times in her writings, it’s not at once. See Messages to Young People page 45 paragraph 2-3 and page 46 paragraph 1-2. There is the amplification of this that we do not have all these graces at once. They are developed by climbing Jacob’s ladder if we know the pit we are in. We don’t want to stay there, we will climb out.
As we live today so very near the coming of Jesus, many people think it is too late for me, I can’t change anymore, I have such a long way to climb. Is there such a thing as really scared of what is back down there so we climb really fast? Can you climb a ladder fast? If you want to get out, you will get out with the flames of burning underneath; you will climb out as fast as you can.
Said the angel, “Deny self; ye must step fast.” Some of us have had time to get the truth and to advance step by step, and every step we have taken has given us strength to take the next. But now time is almost finished, and what we have been years learning, they will have to learn in a few months.
Up quick. That’s what our call is today.
They will also have much to unlearn and much to learn again. Those who would not receive the mark of the beast and his image when the decree goes forth, must have decision now to say, Nay, we will not regard the institution of the beast. {EW 67.2}
This is what the angel said, you must step fast. We must go up that ladder faster but it won’t happen without a one step at a time, just a little faster. You cannot take these steps fast if you are still wallowing around in guilt and condemnation. We must remember that the guilt and condemnation has been taken away. Jesus took it with Him.
We must concentrate on only one step at a time, and while we concentrate on one step at a time, God will cut short His work in righteousness. What is that? He is there working to help us, the angels are there helping us. They will take us just like they took Lot out of the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. Don’t look back, come on, we are going. Up, away from the corruption. This is where our mind activity needs to remain.
As we do this, we have perfect confidence that we will ultimately reach perfection because we are looking at the power of the cross all the way along. Jesus coming down; we are going back up. We come down out of our heaven to rise again.
None are living Christians unless they have a daily experience in the things of God and daily practice self-denial, cheerfully bearing the cross and following Christ. Every living Christian will advance daily in the divine life. {2T 505.1}
Every living Christian will cling to Him, cling to Christ, cling to the ladder; advance daily.
As he advances toward perfection, he experiences a conversion to God every day; and this conversion is not completed until he attains to perfection of Christian character, a full preparation for the finishing touch of immortality. {2T 505.1}
That’s how we started off in the beginning if you recall the statement; we are to reach perfection of Christian character. It is through the fact that we haven’t got it; it’s through the fact that Jesus came down and touched us where we were connecting the divine with the human inside of us, telling us now I have forgiven you, your past has been removed. I have died with it. Have faith; be at peace; start climbing.
It is the knowledge of the mercy and love of Jesus as in the story of Mary Magdalene that made her both the most powerful missionary and the most devoted life of submission and obedience to her Saviour.
The winds of strife are being held back because Jesus is crying for us; Father, my blood, my blood. He is looking down upon the little remnant that still need to climb. Do we care about Him pleading for my salvation crying to the Father to hold the winds a little longer? Shall we decide to respond to His wonderful love and begin to step fast up this ladder? May this occupy our mind. May the power of the cross be our constant reflection so we will make God everything in our life and conquer every step we have to take. This is my prayer, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
