Consider the purpose of the plan of salvation: uniting heaven and earth. Sound impossible? Humanly speaking, it certainly is. Nevertheless, just before ascending to heaven, Jesus gave the apostles a seemingly impossible assignment: ” ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you’ ” (Matt. 28:19-20, NKJV). 

In short, Jesus gives humanly impossible tasks so we will rely on Him, rather than on ourselves, to accomplish them…This quarter we’ll study Paul’s epistles to the Philippians and to the Colossians. They have important similarities. Above all, they reveal Christ, the only One able to unite heaven and earth. He is the ladder Jacob saw stretching from earth to heaven (Gen. 28:12; compare John 1:51). As the Son of man and the Son of God, He redeems us from sin, and He intercedes for us.