2015-09-25
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Today, we will discuss God’s Book of Life and why being inscribed in it is so crucial to us. You’ll remember that last week we looked at a statement that God has made repeatedly in the Bible. It is “You will be My people, and I will be your God.” This happened in ancient Israel when one’s entire household subscribed to the Covenant of the Law with God. This included even the servants they had, even if they were foreign born. The basic Law was the Ten Commandments of EX 20: 1-17. Just to give us an idea of how important this commitment is to God, here are some of the places you will find it mentioned: EX 6: 12; EX 19: 15-16; DT 6: 4-9; DT 11: 13-23; IS 49: 6; JER 24: 7; JER 31: 31-34; JER 32: 38; EZK 11: 19-20; EZK 36: 28-29a; HO 2: 23; 1 COR 1: 23-26; GA 3: 19; REV 21: 3, 6. If one reads the mission statements of both the Son [JN 6: 39-40] and the Father [EPH 1: 4-5] the importance to God of eventually bringing us back to Him can’t be stressed enough.
We all know that sin is the reason for separation from God, so this clearly implies a solution to mankind’s sinning had to be found. Not only this, but some motivation must be present for a man to go against the natural bodily desires he has. Long-time believers like myself find it hard to believe that we were ourselves once on a path of sure spiritual demise and the torment of hell, but we definitely were. It was only with the recognition of what pleases God and what doesn’t that came from the giving of the Law [EX 24: 7-11] along with the salvation from the consequences of serial sinning that came with Christ’s Atonement and our willingness to humbly and genuinely confess sin and embrace faith in Him [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25] that changed our fate. Through these things we are alive in Christ eternally. When we came to faith in Him, we were justified [RO 4: 3] and eternally forgiven [1 JN 1: 9]. But the need for our interaction with God continues in our on-going efforts to reveal, confess, and expunge sins (even subtle ones) from our lives. Because of our covenant relationship, we must do this, as God works to perfect/purify us in this sanctification process. And all who believe in Jesus share in our eagerness for that day when God actually takes us back to His side in heaven for a blissful, eternal fellowship with him [glorification]. But, everyone must make himself accountable before the Lord in the last judgment. It is at that time that we will find out if our names are inscribed in God’s Book of Life or not. We must remember that our God remembered His covenant with the Jews [EX 2: 23-25] when they were groaning under the weight of Egyptian slavery, and that He remembers every promise and/or covenant He has made with His human creation.
This authority to judge is given to Jesus by the Father, in DN 7: 13-14. God’s Book of Life inscribed with the names of those who will return to Him for their heavenly reward is mentioned in PS 87: 6 as the love the Lord has for Israel and those who acknowledge Him as their God (e.g. Rehab, even though she is not born Jewish) is celebrated in this psalm. “The Lord will write in the register of His people: ‘This one was born in Zion.’” We find among Paul’s exhortations, in PHIL 4: 2-3, “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the Gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.” The Lord’s words in REV 3: 5 directed to the church in Sardis help to illuminate this concept. “He who overcomes, like them, will be 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.” The Lord goes on to describe what will happen with the souls of those who were beheaded for their faith in Him (this surely includes John the Baptist), in REV 20: 4-6. “…And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received the mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. [The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended]. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death [hell] has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” This is the resurrection of the just. We must be reminded that those whose names are not here are inscribed as described in REV 20: 12, “And I saw the dead great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.” The second portion of this passage describes the great white throne judgment.
The concept that God keeps a Book of Life [and this author believes also Books of the Dead] is furthered in REV 20: 12 . Once again, this notion is mentioned in REV 21: 27 in the description of the heavenly New Jerusalem. “Nothing impure will enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful and deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Each of us must prayerfully consider the eternal consequences of his life and make whatever changes are necessary to rectify our sinning and enhance our covenant relationship with God. God gives us this opportunity, but only during our earthly lifetimes. That places the urgency of self-evaluation without provoking guilt and making any alterations necessary on each of us.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before You with heads bowed in genuine reverence and awe. You are an amazing God with heart that loves more deeply and effectively than any human heart has ever known. We know that more of Your human creation is sinful and doesn’t value a covenant relationship with You than not. We want to be counted as those You have called to faithful obedience and who are making every effort to answer that call. Our imperfections and basic sinfulness leads us to making stupid and unnecessary mistakes. However, we will work to reveal, confess, and expunge our sins in cooperation with Your work in perfecting us. We take the time to say this today, as we acknowledge Your sovereignty and supremacy over our lives. We also take this opportunity in prayer to offer You our heartfelt love, loyalty, glory, honor, thanks and praise. All too often, we forget to turn to You first when the need arises and to listen/look carefully for Your messages to us. These are found not only by listening in prayer and by studying Your word, but by the people and patterns in the circumstances of our lives. We acknowledge that You allow challenges, losses, disappointments, illnesses and other trials to give us holy ground for growth. You stretch out Your hand and support us by Your mighty arm when we ask for it in Christ’s name, or when we are so challenged that we don’t have the strength to do this. You know everything about us, about the content of our hearts. Nothing is hidden from You. Even so, You go on being in our lives and loving us. You are to be thanked and praised forever, in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: It’s not a pleasant task to discuss the fate of evil people, but it must be done. Mankind’s history is a great teacher and can provide some real motivation to us to be faithfully obedient to God. Most of all we must stay the course-even when the going gets rough. You might think that it’s easy for me to write this, but it isn’t. That’s because of what has gone on in my own life. I’m not willing to be a part of allowing stupidity from my own past to stain the part of my earthly life that is left. At least two generations of my own family squabbled over money, particularly at the time of the deaths of relatives. Some of these disagreements led to the total breaking of family relationships. It is God’s decision who goes into the Book of Life and who does not, not any human’s right. We are told this clearly in MT 7: 1-2. If one has studied the word of God completely as I have, there is no excuse for trying to judge another family member. That is why I am working against my human nature to be forgiving and discerning in my response to bad behavior on the part of others. I like Ronald Reagan’s comment, “Trust but verify” a lot. We can forgive, although we often can’t forget. So, we forgive, but we use common sense in deciding just how close to a family member or friend who is engaging in bad behavior or has a bad attitude. While we are taught to be forgiving, as God forgives us [COL 3: 13], we are also warned, in 2 COR 6: 14, not to be “unequally yoked.” This is where discernment comes in, and if we ask God for anything in Christ’s name (even help in discernment and direction when such a problem comes up), He is here for each of us [JN 15: 7]. Praise and thanks be to our Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2015. All Rights Reserved.
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