The Son of Man is typified by the heavenly ladder seen by Jacob in his dream. In John 1:51 the Lord Jesus said, "You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Such a story is recorded in Genesis 28 in Jacob's dream. Jacob saw a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reached to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it (v. 12). The Lord Jesus said that as the Son of Man, He is this ladder. He is the only begotten Son of God who became the Son of Man. In His humanity, He becomes a joining ladder, to join heaven and earth into one. Heaven refers to God, and earth refers to man. As the ladder, Christ as the Son of Man joins God and man into one.

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 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.

The New Jerusalem is the totality of God joined with man and man mingled with God. The number that represents the New Jerusalem is twelve, signifying that God in His eternal administration is mingled with His creature, man. The Triune God is signified by the number three, and man is signified by the number four. Three times four is twelve. In the New Jerusalem, there are the twelve foundations, inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles (Rev. 21:14); the twelve gates which are twelve pearls, inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes (v. 12); and the twelve fruits of the tree of life (22:2). This shows that the New Jerusalem is the mingling of God and man. This mingling is through the Son of Man who was and still is the only begotten Son of God. This is all in John's writings, which include Revelation.

Eventually, the Triune God becomes the living water, which the Lord Jesus presented to the Samaritan woman in John 4. Jacob's well in John 4 is physical, but Jacob's dream is divine and mystical. In this divine, mystical realm there is a real fountain. This fountain is the Father. When this fountain emerges, or springs up, that is the Son. When the spring flows into a river, that is the Spirit. This is into, or for, the New Jerusalem. The first four chapters of John present the Triune God as the flowing water. In chapters six and seven there are two feasts. These two feasts are the issue of the flowing. We fallen men become hungry and thirsty. At the feast we have something to eat to satisfy our hunger and something to drink to quench our thirst. The food is Christ and the water is also Christ.

We need to see that the Triune God is flowing through the Father, the Son, and the Spirit into us. When we drink of this water, it becomes a fountain in us. We all should say, "The fountain is in me!" This fountain emerges as a spring, and the spring flows out as a river for the New Jerusalem. This is the key to open up the entire Gospel of John. This is the divine speaking, divine spreading, divine dispensing, of the Divine Trinity. The Father as the fountain, the Son as the spring, and the Spirit as the river flow into us. When He flows into us, He flows with us. He will flow us into the New Jerusalem to be the New Jerusalem. The preposition into also means "to become." Into the New Jerusalem means "to become the New Jerusalem." If we are not becoming the New Jerusalem, we can never be in the New Jerusalem. We have to be the New Jerusalem; then we can be in the New Jerusalem. This is the intrinsic significance of the Gospel of John and Revelation.