Revelation
21:22-27 But I saw no temple
in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had
no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of
God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of
those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring
their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by
day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory
and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that
defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in
the Lamb’s Book of Life.
It is unimaginable just how
wonderful the kingdom of Heaven is. But, we have to remember the cost that it
took it enter. An interesting article points out that God does keep books! In
fact, when David was pondering the time between his own conception and birth in
Psalm
139:16, he said “in thy book all
my members were written, which in continuance [that is, as my days continued]
were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them”. It seems that God has
an entry for each person who is conceived, and that all these together
constitute the Book of Life; one great volume containing the names and deeds of
every one who was ever given biological life by his Maker.
But sadly, many during the course of their lives will reject (or simply ignore) God’s provision that would also give them eternal life, earning eternal damnation. As David prayed in Psalm 69:28: “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous”. And that will be a fearful thing, for Revelation 20:15 tells us, “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire”.
Those whose names will not be blotted out of the book, of course, are those who have been redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). Not one person deserves to be retained in God’s book of Life, for all have sinned, but they have “beheld,” with eyes of thankful faith, “the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world”, and have therefore been redeemed by the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
But sadly, many during the course of their lives will reject (or simply ignore) God’s provision that would also give them eternal life, earning eternal damnation. As David prayed in Psalm 69:28: “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous”. And that will be a fearful thing, for Revelation 20:15 tells us, “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire”.
Those whose names will not be blotted out of the book, of course, are those who have been redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). Not one person deserves to be retained in God’s book of Life, for all have sinned, but they have “beheld,” with eyes of thankful faith, “the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world”, and have therefore been redeemed by the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
Finally, only these will still have their names written on the rolls of the heavenly city. God’s Book of Life will have become “the Lamb’s Book of Life” on which are written forever the names of all those redeemed by His blood.
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