Stairway to Heaven

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:51

Sometimes our language cannot express what we mean, but I believe Jesus being God, expressed the truth in the best way given the limitations of His human dialect. That is the reason I like looking at different versions of Bible passages. In the New Living Translation, this same verse is presented as, “...you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth”. 

“The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.” This is what Saint Augustine observed after reading the Scriptures. The more we read the Bible, the more we will be in awe at the breadth of God’s plan for our salvation, that He set in motion, as set down in the Book of Genesis up to the Book of Revelation. In Genesis 28, we read of Jacob seeking refuge in the wilderness from the anger of his brother Essau. While Jacob slept, God gave him a dream of a great “stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it”. 

We see that what was written in Genesis 28:12, was fully revealed in John 1:51. Jacob said in wonder, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." What Jacob did not know, because God had not revealed His plan yet, is that Jesus is man’s stairway to heaven. Jesus declared to His disciples that He came to fulfill that prophetic vision of Jacob in His very own person: "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man". Let us make sure that we are part of God’s family who will reach heaven’s doors and ascend on the Son of Man!