This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 3: the Lamb’s Book.

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When we explore the varied biblical references to the book of life, it’s clear that God is both author and keeper of this divine record. When Moses returns to Mount Sinai after Israel’s sin with the golden calf, he pleads with Yahweh to forgive the people. “But if not,” he tells the Lord, “please erase me from the book you have written.” Yahweh replies, “Whoever has sinned against me I will erase from my book” (Exod. 32:32-33, emphasis added).

Moses then warns the next generation that if it rejects God’s covenant requirements, “the LORD will blot out” the people’s names, making it clear Yahweh is the author, editor, publisher, and copyright owner of the book of life (Deut. 29:20).

Praising God for the wonder of his conception, David writes, “Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began” (Ps. 139:16, emphasis added). 

Isaiah looks to a day when God cleanses the Israelites of sin and calls the residents of Jerusalem “holy.” The work of the Holy Spirit is implied here as he convicts and cleanses the sinful heart. And the Shekinah glory – the divine presence of God manifested in cloud and fire – returns to Mount Zion and shields those written in the book of life from the natural elements:

On that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel’s survivors. Whoever remains in Zion and whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy ​— ​all in Jerusalem written in the book of life ​— ​ when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodguilt from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. Then the LORD will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night over the entire site of Mount Zion and over its assemblies. For there will be a canopy over all the glory, and there will be a shelter for shade from heat by day and a refuge and shelter from storm and rain (Isa. 4:2-6, emphasis added).

Daniel’s vision of the Ancient of Days shows Yahweh sitting in judgment, when “the books” are opened before him. This indicates that God judges according to what he has decreed. He’s not merely the author of the books; he’s sovereign over their contents (Dan. 7:9-10).

Turning to the New Testament, Jesus tells the disciples, who have returned from their mission to cast out demons and proclaim the kingdom of God, that they should rejoice because their “names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). This means God oversees the book and ensures its integrity.

The writer of Hebrews describes heaven, which, among other things, is populated by “the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven” (Heb. 12:23).

Numerous times in the book of Revelation, John makes it clear that names are written in, and perhaps blotted out of, the book of life (Rev. 13:8; 17:8; 20:11-15; 21:27).

So, there’s no question the book of life is God’s book, his registry of the redeemed. He’s sovereign over the book’s entries, writing with an invisible hand that reveals the unfathomable depths of his divine omniscience. He keeps the book of life secure near his throne. And he opens the book on the last day to make it clear his judgments are true and righteous. 

At the same time, three references in Revelation connect the book of life with Jesus. Yes, the book of life is God’s book. It’s also the Lamb’s book. We explore the first reference in this post, and the other two in future posts.

Revelation 3:5

In Jesus’s letter to the church in Sardis, he instructs John to write, “… the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels” (Rev. 3:5). 

Ancient Sardis, capital of Lydia in the Roman province of Asia, was an important city. It lay fifty miles east of Ephesus at the junction of five main roads, and thus it served as a center for trade. Sardis also was known for its manufacture of woolen garments, a fact to which Christ alluded in his message to the church: “the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes” (Rev. 3:5).

Sardis also stood as a military center, for it was located on an isolated plateau. The acropolis of Sardis towered 1,500 feet above the main roads, forming a seemingly impregnable fortress. 

But the city fell. Overconfident and complacent, the inhabitants of Sardis succumbed to the Persians. Later, Sardis came under Roman control. A catastrophic earthquake destroyed the city in AD 17, but Emperor Tiberius ensured its reconstruction through generous financial aid. In gratitude, the citizens built a temple in his honor. 

The city’s main object of worship, however, was the goddess Cybele, the same deity worshiped in Ephesus as Artemis, or Diana, the goddess of the moon, hunting, and chastity. Citizens celebrated the existence of hot springs nearby, where the gods supposedly manifested their power to give life to the dead. 

Sadly, the city in John’s day was but a shadow of its former splendor, and the church had become like the city – alive in name only.

We explore the idea of someone’s name being erased from the book of life in more depth in future posts. For now, we simply note that the concept of removal from the book of life is a challenging one for Bible interpreters. But a person who is truly born again remains regenerate, as John writes elsewhere (John 5:24; 6:35-37, 39; 10:28-29). While the words of Jesus to the church in Sardis may seem to imply that a name could be erased from the book of life, it only gives a positive affirmation that the names of the redeemed will not be erased.

Jesus certainly retains the authority to erase names from the book of life. However, he assures his followers that their names are recorded there – and remain so. This is a subtle claim of ownership, which becomes explicit later in the book of Revelation. Put another way, Jesus reveals to the church in Sardis that the book of life is his book – the Lamb’s book of life.

Just as Jesus once assured his disciples in Judea that their names were written in heaven (Luke 10:20), he comforts believers in Sardis that their names are securely fixed there as well. But how can Jesus make such assertions?

Jesus claims all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). This is a divine authority Jesus shares with the other persons of the triune Godhead: the Father and the Holy Spirit. While these persons are distinct, and though they perform different functions within the Godhead, they never act independently of one another. 

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit fully possess all the divine attributes of God: omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, transcendence, immanence, and so on. Further, the three persons of the Trinity always act in perfect harmony. The Father, Son, and Spirit worked together in the creation of the universe (Gen. 1:1-2; John 1:1-3; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3). They collaborated in the authorship of Scripture (Matt. 4:4; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:21). Today, they play complementary roles in our redemption. And, in the new heavens and new earth, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit inhabit the temple of God, which comes down from heaven as New Jerusalem (Rev. 21 – 22).

So, it shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus claims the book of life as his own, including the authority to determine whose names are written there. Jesus came to earth to do the Father’s will. The Holy Spirit empowered him. And Jesus continues the redemptive work of the triune Godhead today as he sits enthroned at the Father’s right hand, acting as our mediator and intercessor. 

As we see in two other passages in Revelation, John specifically claims Jesus’s ownership of the book of life, calling it “the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered” (Rev. 13:8), and “the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27).

Next: The Lamb’s Book (Part 2)