Going By the Book

During a recent poker night we brought up the "book of life" mentioned in the Bible. And a man told us everyone's name is in that book -- with the only changes occurring if God removes your name due to some terrible sin.

To be honest, this was a point of view we hadn't considered before. So we went back to the first apparent Biblical reference to God's book of life....

So Moses went back to the Lord and said.... "Please forgive their sin -- but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written." The Lord replied to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book." - Exodus 32:32-33

Moses knew about this book, and God said he would blot sinners out of it. (The Hebrew word for "blot" also can meant "wipe out" or "destroy.") So indeed, it seems fair to say God puts everyone's name in that book -- perhaps at birth, perhaps even before (a topic for another time). King David also knew about the book of life....

You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you.... May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous. - Psalm 69:19, 28

So the book of life should be a roll call of righteous people. But there's a perilous problem with the Lord's answer to Moses:

There is no one righteous, not even one.... For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.... - Romans 3:10, 23

Since all (save for Jesus) have sinned, how can anyone have their name in the book of life? We think the answer lies in getting your name restored by God, through a life of repentance and obedience to Him.

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

Verse 3 mentions those two keys to overcoming - "obey.... and repent." We think the best order is to repent first. Then to borrow from a gospel song, one angel may say to another: "Give me the pen" - to be in God's book for good.