Written in Pencil

Have you ever had writer's block or struggled to find the right words to best communicate your thoughts? Usually during this time you are trying to get your ideas down on paper only to have to keep scribbling them out, crumpling up the paper to toss in the trash or you have used your eraser so much that a hole is starting to develop in the paper. You can go through a lot of pencils and erasers during this process as well. This can be a frustrating experience that can end up paralyzing your efforts to get something accomplished. God desires that all men be saved and join Him in Heaven. The Bible describes those that have salvation in Christ as having their names written in the Book of Life. Unfortunately, there is a segment of Christianity that believes a Christian can jeopardize their right standing before God and have their name removed from the Book of Life. Often times terms like "backsliding" are used to describe what happens when somebody does something which threatens to get their name "removed" from the Book of Life. In other situations Bible verses that seem to suggest human effort as being required for salvation are interjected.

"He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels." Revelation 3:5

This passage from Revelation is one of the foundational passages used to support the belief that a person can have their name removed from, or blotted out of, the Book of Life. Following are actual quotes from people who have drawn that conclusion from this passage.

"If they cannot be blotted out then these words of Jesus are pointless?"

"Why would Jesus make a promise to not blot out names from the book of life if no names are gonna be blotted out anyway. Kind of a pointless promise if no names can be blotted out in the first place."

"The bible clearly states that you can be blotted out from the Book of Life. What about those who continously sin and refuses to repent? And for those who think that they have already "overcome"..........quite the contrary."

"I believe God will let you go, if you want to, but i also believe He will never leave you alone."

Do you notice how there is not a lot of substance to the comments? There is a lot of generalizing taking place without the slightest definition of who it is that overcomes or how the overcoming is accomplished. The question that begs asking is "Who is it that overcomes?"

"This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." 1 John 5: 3-5

Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God! There is your answer. Believers are the ones who overcome the world because they have put absolute faith and trust in the finished work of Christ on their behalf as payment for their sins and His resurrection from the dead to restore the life of God we lost in Adam. If overcoming entails anything other than total faith in Jesus Christ than we have opened the door to all sorts of error and deception. I think there is a more sinister motivation behind those that believe and promote that a Christian can have their name blotted out of the Book of Life. In the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul writes about falling from grace. If you fall from something you have to fall to something else, right? That something else is usually legalism which takes many forms. A religious system is of no value if their are no people to subject to its rules and regulations. Therefore, the proponents of that religious system have to create holes in scripture in order to fill them with their theology. I find it interesting that if there was something we were to do, other than put faith in Jesus Christ, in order to keep our names in the Book of Life, scripture would have revealed that to us. But it does not. We are not under law, whether it be the Mosaic Law or laws we make up ourselves and then call religion.

"God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful." 1 Corinthians 1:9

To say we can somehow cause our names to be removed from the Book of Life, through some action of our own, is calling God a liar when scripture says He is faithful. We can't be faithful 100% of the time to God's righteous requirements and He doesn't expect us to be. If we could there would have been no need for Jesus. His death, burial and resurrection would have all been in vain. Of the quotes listed above, the most interesting to me is the one about God allowing us to go, but that He will will never leave us alone. I don't think they realize the double-talk in this statement. If we "go," whatever that means, and God goes with us that is proof that we are still saved and our name is still in the Book of Life. This individual, in an effort to prove their belief that we can be removed from the Book of Life, actually proves the opposite to be true. It was God who called us into fellowship with Jesus Christ and it is God who is faithful to sustain that relationship for eternity.

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." 1 John 5:13

Later in the same chapter in which we discovered who it is that overcomes, 1 John 5, we get "the" evidence that our names are safe in the Book of Life. If we can "know" that we have eternal life than we can also "know" that nothing we do will jeopardize our names. Our salvation was purchased, and guaranteed, by Jesus Christ. If we can have our names blotted out from the Book of Life then we have to define what exactly it is that can cause that to happen. If we say it is some sin we commit then we are denying the finished work of Christ on the cross. But, most likely it is some disobedience to religious laws and traditions that nobody is willing to admit for fear of exposing their legalism. Our salvation is secure and our names in the Book of Life are as well. Not because of anything we do, but because of everything Jesus has done.

God does not write in pencil!