Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. John 10:9, NRSV.
Truth is an active, working principle, molding heart and life so that there is a constant upward movement, climbing the ladder Jacob saw, to the Lord above the ladder. In every step of climbing, the will is obtaining a new spring of action.... The glory of God revealed above the ladder can be appreciated only by the progressive climber, who is ever attracted higher, to nobler aims that Christ reveals. All the faculties of mind and body must be enlisted....
To make our calling and election sure requires far greater diligence than many are giving to this important matter. “For if ye do these things” live on the plan of addition, growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ—ye shall mount up, step by step, the ladder Jacob saw, and “ye shall never fall.” ...
Let us consider this ladder that was presented to Jacob. The human race was cut off from intercourse [communication] with God. They might look at a paradise lost but could see no means of entering it and holding communion with heaven. The sin of Adam cut off all intercourse between heaven and earth. Up to the moment Adam and Eve transgressed God's law there had been free communion between earth and heaven. They were connected by a path Deity could traverse. But the transgression of God's law broke up this path, and the human race was separated from God.
As soon as Satan seduced our first parents to disobedience of God's holy law, every link that bound earth to heaven and the human race to the infinite God seemed broken. Humans might look to heaven, but how could they attain it? But joy to the world! The Son of God, the Sinless One, the One perfect in obedience, becomes the channel through which the lost communion may be renewed, the way through which the lost paradise may be regained. Through Christ, our substitute and surety, we may keep the commandments of God. We may return to our allegiance, and God will accept us.
Christ is the ladder.... This is the ladder, the base of it resting upon the earth, the top reaching to the highest heavens. The broken links have been repaired. A highway has been thrown up along which the weary and heavy laden may pass. They may enter heaven and find rest.—Manuscript 13, 1884 (Manuscript Releases 19:341-353).
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