Tidings for Tuesday
And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Revelation 21:27
Every day throughout the world, 115,000 abortions are performed; that’s 42 million unwanted babies exterminated every year. More human lives have been sacrificed on the altar of unbridled lust than were ever slain by Moguls, Nazis, or even Mohammedans. As frightening as that carnage is, we can take a bit of comfort in knowing that most of those discarded children are probably better off than if they had been born. Regardless of what the godless judges of earth say, life begins at conception, not at birth, according to Scripture. That means all those aborted children have eternal souls. Unaccountable to God for their sin, those precious souls are sheltered by the blood of the Lamb, and are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, along with all other children who fail to reach the age of accountability, and all those who trust Christ as Saviour. But those aborted children have no names! So what is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life?
Note that our text doesn’t speak of names. The late Albert Ramsay used to ask people if their names are written anywhere besides the phone book. It’s nice to think of the Lamb’s Book of Life as a great listing of the names of all believers. But it is so much more! If it were just a listing of names, problems could occur because of misspellings, duplications, and name changes. No doubt names will be there. But the Book contains not only names – because some have none – but also the very personalities of those who are saved. The Lord Jesus didn’t write only your name, He wrote you in His Book. This glorious truth is one more aspect that is precious about the eternal security of the believer.
The verses that precede today’s text describe the Holy Jerusalem, its dimensions, its description, and its dazzling splendour. Such a place awaits us as our eternal dwelling, and the language of our chapter only begins to bring it into focus for our frail little minds. We rejoice that it is for us. But we pause at the solemnity of the fact that it is only for us. Our text tells us that, as welcoming as the New Jerusalem is for those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, it excludes all of those who are not written there. We fear for our unsaved loved ones. We fear for those who attend Gospel meetings but make no profession of salvation. We fear for those who refuse an invitation to the meetings, and those who never receive an invitation. The gates of the New Jerusalem will keep out far more than they admit. And it is only the grace of God that they will admit us.
Membership in earth’s clubs, organizations, and societies can be expensive in terms of dollars, but they are pitifully cheap when compared to the price paid for you and me to be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Praise the Lord for writing us there! -Jim MacIntosh