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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Read The Lamb’s Book (Part 1)

Of those who worship the beast from the sea – that is, the antichrist – John writes, “All those who live on the earth will worship it, everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered” (Rev. 13:8).

John tells us the book of life is the Lamb’s book. While the three persons of the Godhead work collaboratively to redeem mankind, Jesus is the distinct member of the Trinity that leaves heaven, adds sinless humanity to his deity via the virgin birth, bears our sin debt on the cross, and rises from the dead to conquer Satan, sin, and death for us. 

It is Jesus who shares our humanity, satisfies the wrath of the Father on our behalf, proves his messianic claims under the power of the Spirit, suffers and dies as our Passover Lamb, rises from the dead in cosmic victory, and now holds the keys of death and hades.

Those whose names are excluded from the Lamb’s book of life have set themselves in opposition to God, and thus in opposition to God’s only remedy for their sin. Turning from the Son of God, they become willing worshipers of a counterfeit Christ. And so, their names are absent from the book of life. As Leon Morris notes in his commentary on Revelation, John wants his little handful of persecuted Christians to see that what matters most is the sovereignty of God, not the power of evil. “When a man’s name is written in the book of life he will not be forgotten. His place is secure.”

Matthew Henry adds:

Christ had a chosen remnant, redeemed by his blood, recorded in his book, sealed by his Spirit; and though the devil and antichrist might overcome their bodily strength, and take away their natural life, they could never conquer their souls, nor prevail with them to forsake their Saviour and revolt to his enemies.

The book of life belongs to Jesus, who is described in Old Testament sacrificial terms as the slain lamb (Isa. 53:7; cf. John 1:29, 36; Rev. 5:6, 9). The redeemed of earth have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect (1 Pet. 1:19). The saints make their robes white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 7:14; see also 3:5, 18; 4:4; 6:11; 7:9; 19:14). The death of Jesus is no accident, nor is it God’s desperate Plan B after mankind falls into sin; rather, it is the core of God’s eternal plan, as Peter states in his message on the Day of Pentecost: 

Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know. Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him. God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death (Acts 2:22-24).

The Lamb’s death was decided before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:20). This foreknown fact ensures that our salvation is secure, as God knows us from all eternity. The entry of our names in the Lamb’s book of life proceeds from the eternal councils of the Trinity: the invisible hand of the Father, the blood-soaked ink of the Son, and the seal of the Holy Spirit on the scroll of the redeemed. Yes, the book of life is God’s book, and its subtitle – the Lamb’s book of life – reveals to us the one who is the “pioneer and perfecter” of our faith (Heb. 12:1-2). 

Next: The Lamb’s Book (Part 3)