In Genesis 28, Jacob had a dream in which he saw a stairway that began on earth and whose top reached up into heaven. He saw angels ascending and descending on the stairs.
"There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Genesis 28:13-15
Jacob concluded that he had been given the site where he had had the dream because it was the gateway to heaven. It was Jesus in John 1:51 gave us the proper interpretation of the dream.
"He then added, I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
Jesus was Jacob’s ladder! The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He became the gate of heaven. This doctrine is absolutely revolutionary. See, the ladder is not something we ascend toward heaven. Rather it is Jesus himself descending from the glory of heaven to become the God-man, the suffering servant, the righteous branch, the Son of God and Son of man. It is not a metaphor of our ascent, but of Christ’s descent; not of our coming to Christ, but of Christ coming to us. Hence, Christ is the bridge from the infinite to the finite. Jesus was and is God saying, "Here I am–right in front of you! This is what I am like."
Someone once said that Christianity is not a religion because religion consists in humans trying to reach God, while Christianity is a matter of God reaching humans. ((Michael Horton, Putting Amazing back into Grace, Baker Books, p.92-97))