The Apostle Paul knew as much as anyone in history about how learning from the wrong perspective leads to error. Being in conflict with the truth led him to persecute the Lord Himself by persecuting His people. Because of this, he gave possibly the greatest discourse ever written of what leads to truth in Colossians 1:9-20:

             For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

             so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

             strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 

             For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

             And He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.

             For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him.

             And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

             He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything.

             For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,

             and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

          It’s all about Jesus. The key to the kingdom is the knowledge of who Jesus is. Jesus is Jacob’s ladder by which we ascend into the heavens and return to the earth with evidence of heaven’s reality and authority over the earth.

          The first mention in Scripture that God had a house, a dwelling place, was when Jacob had the dream of the ladder that reached into heaven with the messengers of God ascending and descending upon it. This first mention of His house is also a revelation of the first purpose of the church that is called to be His house—we are to be the place of access to heaven where the messengers of God can ascend into the heavenly realm and descend back to the earth with evidence of heaven and its authority over the earth.

          When Jesus met Nathaniel, He told him that he would see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Jesus is “Jacob’s Ladder” by which we have that access. It is the progressive revelation of who He is by which we ascend. Everything was made through Him and for Him, and in Him all things hold together. The Way is not a formula—the Way is a Person. We are not just seeking to grow spiritually, but we are to grow up into Christ.

          We are told in Ephesians 1:10 that all things will be summed up in Christ. Jesus is the ultimate purpose of God. In everything that was made, the Father is looking for His Son. He’s looking for His Son in us. Therefore, the ultimate purpose of everything that He does or allows to happen in our lives is to conform us to His image.

          We cannot have an accurate understanding of the world without seeing Jesus as the ultimate purpose of all of Creation. This is why the apostolic gospel was, “they preached Jesus and the resurrection from the dead” (see Acts 4:2). When we see Him as the purpose for everything, everything becomes clear. There is no higher revelation and no deeper truth than Who Jesus is.