Book Of Life - What Is It? - Whose In It?

I once heard an evangelist ask this question at a revival meeting.

Is your name written in the Lamb’s book of life?

At the time I did not know or have an opinion.  And it turned out, he did not know either, but he did have an opinion.  He said that we are entered in the book when we make a decision for Christ, and those who do not make that decision are left out, or blotted out, to be eternally condemned to hell.  Then he appealed to the crowd to repent and accept Jesus so that your name could be written in the book of life. So up to the alter I went, an act in which I would repeat almost every time revival services came to town...until I started studying the Bible for myself.

Here is what I think about the book of life after reading all Scriptures, including those which reference that book.

Anyone who is born and is alive is in the book of life (they’re alive).
And anyone who dies is blotted out (they’re dead).

Well that is a bummer isn't it?

Well yes, if it were not for the good news that God is not willing that any should “perish” (stay dead-totally destroyed).

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish (stay dead) but have everlasting life…The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9 KJV)

And so, we have been given the good news to share…
“And I make known to you, brethren, the good news that I proclaimed to you…that Christ died for our sins, according to the Writings, and that he was buried, and that he hath risen on the third day, according to the Writings…Christ hath risen out of the dead -- the first-fruits of those sleeping he became, for since through man [is] the death, also through man [is] a rising again of the dead,  for even as in Adam all die, so also in the Christ all shall be made alive...the mortal must put on immortality…then shall be brought to pass the word that hath been written, The Death was swallowed up – to Victory” (1 Corinthians 15 YLT)
All mankind started out as mortals written in the book of life, and all mankind are blotted out because all mortals sin.  However, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, after he took upon himself the sin of the world, guarantees us that mankind will not “perish”.  He is “the first-fruits of those sleeping” and all others will be raised and inscribed in the Lamb’s book of life, this time righteous, and immortal, so that death can never again blot them out.
“God was in Christ — a world reconciling to Himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses…him who did not know sin, in our behalf He did make sin, that we may become the righteousness of God in him… he is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world,” (2 Corinthians 5:19-21; 1 John 2:2 YLT)


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