The Seventh Step — Christ, Who Became the Ladder

1He brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, waters flowed out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the front of the house faced toward the east. The waters came down from underneath, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar. 2Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me around by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of the gate that looks toward the east. Behold, waters ran out on the right side. 3When the man went out eastward with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles. 4Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through waters that were to the waist. 5Afterward he measured one thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters had risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be walked through.

Listening to these sermons on the stairway of faith, you will have seen how varied believers’ faith is. You might think that everyone who attends church has the same faith; believers hold faith as varied as their own vessels. Faith does not grow because you have lived a life of faith for a long time; you can mature only by holding a faith that resolves by the Word.

Look at the steps of faith we have come through: there was the flower-garden faith, then the stumbling-block faith, the sharp low hills, the high mountain and the valley, the faith that overcomes the world’s waves, the faith of the eagle flying the open sky, and the step of despair. Which step of faith are you standing on now? Do you still hold a faith like a child’s, coming to church only when someone leads you? Or is it a faith that sacrifices itself for the church and for other believers?

A believer is a person who believes in Jesus Christ and is set apart from the world. A Christian is a person of God’s kingdom, and lives in the world carrying the calling of telling God’s will by faith. The one who carries the role of a ladder, standing silently beside every believer at every step without exception, from the flower-garden faith to the faith that knows despair, is exactly the Jesus Christ who sacrificed himself for sinners.

Isaiah 66:1

1Yahweh says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me? Where will I rest?

It is written that heaven is God’s throne and this earth is his footstool. A wooden box for resting the feet on is called a footstool. Christ, seated on the throne of heaven and using the earth as his footstool, is the Creator who made the heavens and the earth by his word and made human beings in God’s image, and he is the owner of all life. He is an honored one who need not have taken up a cross for sinners at all, and his love is what made him take it up. How could a human being in darkness know that astonishing love of light?

God pitied the souls falling into Satan’s temptation and into the pit of death, and that is why he nailed his only Son to the cross and blocked the pit of death with the Son’s life.

Jesus Christ is even now, unchanging, guarding believers so that they do not fall into Satan’s temptation. So you too must have every standard set on salvation when you judge the world, as Jesus did, and must live always with a thankful heart.

If you sacrificed your son in order to save someone, and that person, far from being thankful, demanded more money, what would you do? If he came every day to say that he lived at the cost of your son’s sacrifice, so now you must help him live more comfortably, you would probably be furious. This is exactly what we look like, praying to the God who had no choice but to have his Son killed for sinners, asking to live better in the world. And even so, unable to shut such wicked human beings into death, he counsels us to repent and gives us the chance to be sanctified and bears with us in love.

Jesus cut himself into pieces and had nails driven into him and made himself a ladder, so that every believer might come to God. Because there is a Jesus who protects the saved to the end so that they do not stumble, all of us can hold a great hope of heaven.

That a Creator should sacrifice himself for a creature cannot happen. That God the Son put on a body and came to this earth for sinners is an astonishing grace that neither Satan nor a human being could dare imitate. And in front of a ladder built by that desperate love and sacrifice, we are the ones shouting that we want the world’s power and honor, so lift us higher.

God tells us to throw out of the heart the worldly greed that hides the truth. Only then can we know God’s deep purpose, he says, and we bargain with God endlessly to push our own will through. God says to live for the soul rather than the flesh, and we plead for the comfort of the flesh rather than the soul. Knowing all of it, Jesus walks with us always, in case even one soul stumbles, and helps us be filled with the Holy Spirit.

You must hear the Lord’s voice encouraging believers who hesitate and do not climb the ladder: “This is not a place for you to stay, so let the world go now and climb up over me.” God helps like this, and if you close your eyes and ears and go along with the world, meaning to live somehow by your own strength without the ladder, then since the world is a maze you can only come back to the place of death. You must believe God’s word and live it out. Solomon enjoyed wealth and honor by God’s grace, and what he said at the end of his life was that a world lived without God is vanity of vanities.

1 Kings 9:4-5

4As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances; 5then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised to David your father, saying, ‘There shall not fail from you a man on the throne of Israel.’

God promised Solomon plainly that if he kept his statutes and ordinances he would make his throne secure forever. But Solomon let the world take his heart and abandoned a holy life. The price of it was that the kingdom split in the days of his son Rehoboam.

God always promises first and then goes on to fulfill that promise. Had Solomon, who heard the word, kept the statutes and ordinances, he would have known that the promise was true. But Solomon did not love God deeply as David did, and he did not know God well, so he did not fear him. Solomon did not think deeply about how fearful God’s command is, which is why he could not discern the world’s pleasure and lewdness and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:17

17but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

God said that eating the fruit means certain death; and Adam and Eve did not see that fruit as an actual object of death full of poison, and so they heard God’s command and ate without fear. When God said that eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil brings death, had they known clearly what that tree looked like and what shape that fruit had, Adam and Eve would have refused boldly when Satan tempted them. Only when you can discern the fruit Satan holds out can you live a holy life and hold a bold faith. Know how God’s word is being fulfilled in the world and a believer can overcome the temptation of sin and lean on Christ all the more.

Even a mature believer with an eagle faith will be seized by sin and stumble the moment he gives up climbing the ladder of Jesus Christ. Do not forget that unless you hold a mature character through the fullness of the Holy Spirit until the moment you take off this body, you can eat that fruit at any time. Satan’s attack will grow stronger as the last days come, so you must be in the light. If you eat the fruit as Satan hands it to you, Satan will go looking for another believer, because he knows those who ate it will rot where they are. Only by boldly blocking Satan’s attack can you protect the weak souls.

Peter, who loved Jesus, lied to a young servant girl out of fear of death, and before the rooster crowed he cursed and denied three times that he knew Jesus. He was so afraid of sharing the pain of the Jesus being whipped that he denied knowing him, and then the rooster crowed. Only then did he remember Jesus telling him beforehand that he would deny him three times before the rooster crowed, and he wept aloud.

He had been told beforehand that he would betray him, and Peter did not take it deeply to heart, because he was certain that he at least would never betray. Denying the Jesus he had loved so much was agony, and what he most regretted was that he had forgotten the word given to him beforehand, telling him not to commit that sin. Had Peter never known spiritual fullness, or not known that Jesus is the Christ and that heaven exists, he would not have been in such agony. Peter grasped Jesus’ love and repented, and after carrying his calling with all sincerity he took up a cross and was martyred as Jesus was.

That Christ becomes the ladder and helps every believer at every moment is not because he is less than the believers and so stands in that place. He came to the lowest place, bringing Satan’s plan to nothing, in order to save the many souls shut in sin and death. On the day the angels’ trumpets sound, the ladder will disappear forever. Then you will see only the judge, angry toward the people who did not receive Christ and toward the world that persecuted his believers. You can gain eternal life only by throwing away a proud heart while he is still giving the chance to repent, and taking hold of the ladder, Christ, who gave himself gladly, and climbing.

John 4:25-26

25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah comes, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who speaks to you.”

When the Samaritan woman came out to the well, Jesus asked her for water. Surprised, the woman asked how he could ask her for water when Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. In the course of the conversation the woman said she believed the one called the Christ would come, and that when he came he would tell them about worshiping God in truth. Then Jesus said that he, speaking to her, was the Christ.

Fail to grasp God’s will as a whole and you will not recognize Christ even face to face in conversation with him, and you will not discern it when Satan tempts you with what is not the truth. The woman knew that the Christ was coming, and though the Jesus who had come exactly as the prophets foretold, without a hair’s breadth of error, was standing in front of her, she did not recognize the Messiah.

Believers who know the Word must now watch how the world is turning. Only then can you know roughly where in the prophecy written in scripture you are standing. Believe only what you can see like this, and even though God has told us what the last signs are, you can only be deceived when Satan tempts with sweet words. Believe only that the fruit looks desirable, as Adam and Eve did, and you will not think about what happens after eating it. Remember exactly what Christ said to you, and have the wisdom to keep faith within the truth.

If a believer who has received a love this astonishing sways at every step of faith and displays human righteousness, then even with Jesus as the ladder he cannot overcome Satan. Fall into your own thinking whenever a problem comes, saying you will rest from God’s work a while according to your feelings, and you can never live as a believer and can never meet God. Just as Jesus did not stop his walk toward the cross, you too must live it out in the spirit of taking up a cross.

John 6:39

39This is the will of my Father who sent me, that of all he has given to me I should lose nothing, but should raise him up at the last day.

God’s will is to raise on the last day all the souls entrusted to Christ, so Jesus could give up his own life gladly.

He knew Judas Iscariot was scheming with Satan to sell him, and he did not stop it, because his dying was the way to save the chosen souls; and he gave Judas chance after chance, only so as not to lose him. He even said the grievous words that the Son of Man must take up the cross to fulfill God’s promise, but the one who sells him will meet a great judgment, so it would have been better for that man not to have been born.

But Judas Iscariot, seized by spiritual ignorance, sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. A person spiritually ignorant like this is not unsaved because he never heard the gospel; he is unsaved because of the ignorance that cannot see Christ as the Christ even after hearing it.

When Jesus had eaten the last supper with his disciples and gone to the Mount of Olives, Judas Iscariot and his party came with swords and clubs to arrest him. Then Peter could not hold his temper and cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest’s servant. Seeing it, Jesus rebuked Peter instead, saying that he could call twelve legions of angels but would not, because it would not help fulfill God’s will.

If Jesus really had the power to call angels, more people would have followed him had they seen him judge Judas Iscariot and the wicked; so why did he not? This is exactly the evidence that Christ’s thinking and human thinking differ. When we are wronged or meet suffering, we think that a person is only able if they use money and people to overpower their opponent or bring the suffering to an end. However much God says do not be angry, love your enemies, be patient, we think that bearing with it is foolish when there is a way to win right now. But Jesus could have judged them, and he bore with human betrayal and mockery, because God’s will is to save souls.

God has asked you too to live as Christ’s witness. Christ’s witness must hold the same purpose Jesus held, so you must be patient in the spirit of taking up a cross in order to live by the Word. You too can meet, while you live, wicked men holding swords and clubs, and can meet the fiery serpents and the thirst that fill a world like a wilderness. When suffering comes, do not rage at why you should have to suffer; may you meet it with the composure of knowing that in a world Satan rules such things can happen at any time.

Acts 7:22

22Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works.

Stephen told the Jews that Moses was a man able in everything Egyptian. God raised Moses as a prince in Egypt and trained him as a herdsman in the wilderness, and it was all finally for the exodus. Moses, commanded by God to go to Egypt in order to bring Israel out, asked what he should do if the people did not believe him. Stephen said Moses was able in Egypt’s speech and culture; and standing before God, Moses refused, saying his mouth was stiff and his tongue slow and he could not carry the work. Of course, as life in the wilderness went on he lost his confidence and his certainty about himself, and lost the courage he had held as a prince.

But a change of circumstances does not mean that the God who had helped Moses until then leaves his side. God is the protector who is beside you unchanging, in joy and in sorrow and under persecution. Had Moses received God sincerely, he would have grasped it at once when he was shown the miracles of the staff becoming a snake, and leprosy appearing on his hand and then being healed. God showed Moses the miracles of the snake and the leprosy as an effort to turn Moses’ unbelief into faith. Just as he gave leprosy as a way of making him know God, perhaps the suffering you meet is his word saying that he is alive and helping you, so do not worry. The exodus was God’s plan and would certainly come about, so Moses had only to believe; and he could not believe God’s power and could not resolve. Saying this does not mean Moses had no faith. Moses is a servant of God greater than anyone.

When God called him, Moses should have grasped that everything from his time as a prince to the years he lived as a herdsman had been training to become a leader. Grasping God’s will rightly matters, because if Moses did not grasp it God’s plan could not be carried out at once, the Egyptian king’s wickedness would grow more extreme, and the people would suffer. So when God’s command falls, thinking twice is already too late.

Look at the Bible: the one who fought against Pharaoh is Moses, not Aaron. God set Aaron up because Moses kept refusing his word; and in the end it was work the chosen Moses had to carry, so obeying the moment a command comes is the faith that receives blessing. Keep weighing the Word against the world after receiving God’s command and either there will be no second chance, or another round of training will come. So judging by the Word the events of the world you meet in the course of a life is necessary.

Revelation 1:5

5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood;

The people who nailed Jesus to the cross threw stones and tormented him until he died, and felt not a trace of guilt. At the moment Jesus died, heaven and earth together showed signs and made known that he is the true king and the Son of God.

Jesus has now gone up to the throne of heaven and taken off the filthy, shabby clothing of a human being and put on a shining light that cannot be looked at. The wounds of the whip and the spear became a narrow gate that sinners who did not share in his suffering can never enter. The word he preached, that faith alone is the way to live, became the standard of judgment, a sword sharp on both edges. Had scripture not testified in detail about a Jesus Christ this fearful, we would probably have been careless with the Jesus who became a ladder to protect us. Scripture was written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so every word of it is fact. Scripture tells us that Jesus rose and is at the right hand of the throne as judge, as high priest, and as king. So if you do not repent now you will suffer the eternal second death.

Christ will remain forever the God of power who holds the keys of death and of Hades, and he will be an eternal refuge for the believers who trust and lean on him. For people who mocked the Word and persecuted believers, the chance of salvation will disappear forever once Christ returns. While they are astonished and afraid, the believers who walked the narrow road to keep their faith in a world like a wilderness will praise God’s glory beside Jesus Christ.

Darkness can never cover you, who have become children of light, and Satan too will look on God’s glory and fall into the eternal lake of fire. The brothers in faith who endured the time of suffering together will comfort and bless one another and praise toward the throne with the angels and share their joy. A reward in the life to come, as beautiful as this, waits for the believer who did not stay in the world but climbed the ladder in earnest. We did not share the pain of the cross Jesus suffered, and simply by climbing well up the ladder Christ made himself we will be commended as God’s faithful servants.

May you offer a confession of love toward Jesus Christ without ceasing. Whichever step of faith you are standing on now, may you not stop worshiping God. Only a believer who worships God can overcome Satan’s power. And if you pull one another up as brothers in faith and lean on one another and work together for good, you will show what a mature church looks like.

If believers hold a firm faith, Jesus Christ, the head of the church, will give peace to their homes and their church and their country. However confused the world is, Jesus is beside you, so do not worry, do not fret, and may you live a good life that wins by faith.

You are Christians under God’s protection within Christ, and so I believe you will enjoy peace and rest all the more.