John 1:30-33 indicates that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the Baptizer.
In verse 33 John the Baptist said, “He who sent me to baptize in water, He said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, this is He who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.” In contrast to John the Baptist, who baptized in water, Christ is the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. Water signifies death and burial for the termination of the repenting people; the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life and resurrection for the germination of the terminated people. The Holy Spirit, into whom Christ has baptized the believers, is the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9). Hence, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit is to be baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3), into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and even into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13).
John 1:32 says, “John testified, saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him.” The dove signifies that Christ, the One who became the tabernacle and who is all the offerings, has become a life-giving Spirit to impart God into all those who accept the offerings in order to enter into God.
In John 1 Christ is presented as a little lamb with a little dove. The Lamb takes away sin from man, and the Dove brings God as life to man. The Lamb is for redemption, to redeem fallen man back to God, and the Dove is for life-giving, for anointing, to anoint man with what God is, to bring God into man and man into God, and for uniting the believers in God. Both the Lamb and the Dove are needed for us to participate in God.
John the Baptist testified that He saw the Spirit descending as a dove upon the Lamb of God and abiding upon the Lamb. A heavenly Dove was therefore upon the Lamb of God. In this way the two, the Lamb and the Dove, became one entity, which we may call the Dove-Lamb. This Dove-Lamb is the pneumatic Christ. The adjective pneumatic, meaning spiritual, is derived from the Greek word for spirit, pneuma. After His resurrection Christ became the pneumatic Christ. According to 1 Corinthians 15:45 He is the last Adam, who has become the life-giving Spirit. The life-giving Spirit is the pneumatic Christ. For our experience and enjoyment today, Christ is not merely the Lamb nor merely the Dove; He is the Dove-Lamb, the pneumatic Christ, the life-giving Spirit.
As the Baptizer Christ puts men into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), bringing them into a spiritual and mystical union with the Triune God.
As the Baptizer Christ also germinates with the divine life those who believe in Him, causing them to become children of God with the divine life and the divine nature (John 1:12-13).
In verses 51 and 42 we see that we may experience and enjoy Christ as the heavenly ladder. He is the fulfillment of the ladder which Jacob saw in his dream when he was fleeing from his brother (Gen. 28:12). On that ladder the angels of God were ascending and descending.
In John 1:51 the Lord Jesus said to Nathanael, “Truly, truly, I say to you, You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” This reveals that Christ, as the Son of Man, with His humanity, is the ladder set up on the earth and leading to heaven, keeping heaven open to earth and joining earth to heaven. Heaven refers to God, and earth refers to man. As the ladder, Christ as the Son of Man joins God and man into one.
As the heavenly ladder Christ is the One who brings heaven to earth and joins earth to heaven. According to our concept, Christ has gone away from the earth. But according to God’s concept, Christ has been set up on the earth, and no one can move Him. Our Christ, who is the ladder bringing heaven to earth and joining earth to heaven, is now not only in heaven but also on earth. Christ has been set up on earth, and He is reaching into heaven for the purpose of coming to us and joining us to Him.
In eternity past He was the Word, but in eternity future He will be the ladder. The ladder is not flat. It is set up on the earth to reach the heavens as a stairway. Every ladder is a stairway for going up and coming down. This traffic is the fellowship. The ladder indicates traffic, fellowship. The love of the Father, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14) are the reality of this ladder for going up and coming down. The Triune God is not flat. The Triune God is standing up to be a ladder. Without a ladder, there is no way to climb up higher. Christ as the ladder is the way in John 14:6. He is “the ladder way.” How can we as earthly men be one with the heavenly Father? Christ is the way as the ladder. He is the stairway for us to be one with God.
Christ as the heavenly ladder also needs a strong base to stand on. In Genesis 28:12 and 19 the heavenly ladder which Jacob saw took Bethel as its base. Bethel is God’s house, God’s dwelling place. Today in God’s organic salvation, our regenerated spirit is God’s dwelling place (Eph. 2:22), even the Holy of Holies of God (Heb. 4:16; 10:19), which Christ as our heavenly ladder takes as His base. Whenever we turn to our spirit, we sense Christ bringing God (heaven) to us and joining us to God (heaven). Thus, Christ as the heavenly ladder is the stairway to bring God to us and join us to God.
This Christ as the life-giving Spirit becomes the heavenly ladder that brings heaven to earth and joins the earth to heaven at Bethel—God’s dwelling place in the spirit of the believers on earth. We are a part of God’s house, Bethel, which brings heaven to earth and joins earth to heaven. We need to realize that as the duplication of Christ, we are the heavenly ladder bringing heaven to earth and joining earth to heaven (cf. S. S. 3:6). When we minister Christ to sinners, they will appreciate Christ and receive Christ. This is to bring heaven to the earth. Then when we help them to grow, we are joining them to heaven. Every day we should be persons bringing heaven to earth and joining earth to heaven.
As the universal, heavenly ladder, Christ brings heaven to earth and joins earth to heaven, thereby making God and man one. On this ladder the angels of God ascend and descend as they do their service “for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation” (Heb. 1:14). Today we may experience and enjoy Christ as the ladder that joins us to heaven and brings heaven to us so that we may be a heavenly people living a heavenly life on earth and inheriting all the heavenly things.
Christ’s being the heavenly ladder is not only for joining the earth to heaven but also for producing stones for the house of God (John 1:42; Gen. 28:16-19). When Jacob awoke from his sleep in Genesis 28, he said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (v. 17). Then he poured oil (a symbol of the Holy Spirit) upon the stone (a symbol of a transformed person) which he had used for a pillow, and he called the name of that place “Bethel,” which means “house of God.” In chapter one of John, we have the Spirit and the stone for the house of God. Verse 42 tells us that when Simon was brought to the Lord Jesus, He looked at him and said, “You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Cephas (which is interpreted, Peter).” The name Peter means “a stone,” signifying a work of transformation that brings forth material for God’s building. Thus, wherever Christ is as the heavenly ladder in His humanity, there is the gate of heaven, and there is the building of God’s house with all the stones, that is, with all the transformed persons.