Lesson on the Book of Life (this was written for an online class)
I thought I would start small and then work my way up. That way I can see if I should break the lesson up into sections so that folks can do them at their own pace. I looked around on FB, and long lengthy writing were too much for me. It was easy to get lost. This lesson was prepared for my two neighbor ladies who were questioning the Book of Life and asked me lots of questions. I explained verbally, but they wanted more. Three hours at a kitchen table later this lesson was written. So, I’ve adapted it to our new online class as a “test” of how this will work or not work. Enjoy! (I don’t know if you want to make a mark, hit like, or write done or something to let me know where you are. It may help you to keep track of where you are.) Hopefully, when you get a moment, you can open FB, read the next section and chew on it a while. I just love how God will teach me something, and I chew on it and just when I get it, He adds more. Open to suggestions and comments and or questions!!
So here are a few notes on the subject of the Book of Life. God is so good, and when you have a real relationship with Him, you also have an eternal future with Him. Nothing you do gets your name into the Book of Life because Jesus and Jesus alone has paid your sin debt and set you free. It’s like the movie quote from Dr. Strange, “It’s not about you.” Hopefully, you won’t go nuts with my silliness. God works in mysterious ways…in me lol.
It’s not about “how you get your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life” but how you respond to Jesus who has already written your name in His book. You need to use that free will of yours and accept His gift of salvation. His name is Jesus (which means salvation)! -Shahe
Book of Life/Lamb’s Book of Life (Biblos tēs zōēs)
Biblos is Greek for scrolls, record, papers, book, roll, or volume, sometimes with a sacred connotation.
2222 zōḗ – life (physical and spiritual). All life (2222 /zōḗ), throughout the universe, is derived – i.e., it always (only) comes from and is sustained by God’s self-existent life. The Lord intimately shares His gift of life with people, creating each in His image which gives all the capacity to know His eternal life.
The Book of Life has been taught in many ways. I just go by what the actual words say in my Bible. I try not to put in my own opinion or the commentaries of someone else. Some believe your name gets written in the Book of Life for eternity when you accept Jesus. But that is not what the words in the Bible say.
Your name was written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the earth. Your name is in there because God wrote it in the book when He knew He would create you. It will stay in there for your whole life on earth. You are in there because of Him. You stay in there because of Him.
When you live out your life on this earth, you have a choice to make. To you, who is Jesus?
If you accept Jesus, then your name remains in the Book of Life. However, if you reject Jesus, then your name is “blotted” out and is removed from the Book of Life.
Some verses to study for the “Book of Life.”
Philippians 4:3, “Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”
Book of Life, this verse specifically shows that believers (those who respond to the Gospel) have and will keep their names in the Book of Life.
Revelation 3:5, “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”
Book of Life, specifically notice the word “overcomes.” Overcomers are overcomers ONLY by Yeshua Ha Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah).
Overcomer 3528 nikáō(from 3529 /níkē, “victory”) – properly, conquer (overcome); ” ‘to carry off the victory, come off victorious.’ The verb implies a battle.” We overcome, and we are victorious because of Jesus.
Also, notice “erase.” Erase is the word exaleipsō.
Erase 1813 eksaleíphō (from 1537 /ek, “wholly out from,” intensifying 218 /aleíphō, “smear”) – properly, to rub (smear) out, i.e., completely remove (wipe away); obliterate; remove totally from a previous state with the outcome of being blotted out (erased).
Writing Rev. 3:5 with words added in to explain.
“He who overcomes (to conquer, prevails because of Jesus) will thus be clothed (Romans 13:14, rather clothe yourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ) in white garments (made clean/pure by Him/righteous by His Righteousness); and I (Jesus) will not erase (blot out, as in his name is in the book) his name from the book of life, and I (Jesus) will confess his name (acknowledge, recognize) before My Father (God) and before His (Father God’s) angels.”
Book of Life, this verse shows that those who overcome by Jesus will already have their names in the Book of Life but that Jesus Himself promises that He will not blot out the overcomer’s name and even go further and confess his name to Father God. It also shows the contrast. All names are in the Book of Life, but those who do not accept Jesus and the victory that He provides through salvation will be erased or blotted out. Think of the Harry Potter’s character, Hermione Granger when she erased her parent’s memory of her, she said, “Obliterate.” Now I am the first to say no pagan, no magic, but you get the idea. You are created, named, loved and given a choice to live out eternity in the love of the One who created you.
Revelation 13:8, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him (the beast), everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.”
I know what you are thinking. Didn’t I just contradict myself from the last verse? But the answer is no. God’s Word never contradicts itself. There are a couple of key phrases. “All who dwell on the earth” and “worship him (the beast).” All people created will identify as to belonging to “this world/flesh/against God” or as to belonging to “heaven/God/with God/Salvation.”
It’s defined or decided based on “who you worship.” God is all knowing and knows that those who worship this world and the beast of this world, belong to this world and their names will not be found in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Here we need to understand a key concept to make sure that we do NOT fall to the false teachings of predestination.
First God, desires that all mankind come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He created us all, and He created a way for all of us as sinners to live out eternity with a Holy God. He loves us all equally. He also created us with the ability to respond or reject His offer of eternity. Eternity’s offer is Jesus; there is no other way.
Predestination is NOT God has decided ahead of time some to be in heaven and some not to be in heaven. Don’t forget John 3:16. (I personally intimately know and understand this one because of my own testimony and experience, long story, I could write a book, lol).
Predestination means God has seen it, so it will come to be. God has seen/marked ahead of time, based on God’s foreknowledge. Predestination and God’s foreknowledge are related. He is not limited, we are.
Predetermined in Greek is “Horizo” which means determine, appoint, decree, designate, separate, mark off by boundaries, and appoint. Foreknowledge in Greek is “prognosis” meaning previously determined “God’s absolute foreknowledge.”
Predestination applies only to believers, those who choose Jesus. They have responded to and received the Gospel.
We all have the opportunity to respond or reject Jesus.
Reading the above verse, you have to look at the context and where we are in the Book of Revelation. God is showing the Apostle John, through a vision, the events to come in the future. This verse is future written in that at the point of chapter 13 it is known if you are a “dwell on earth” or “dwell in heaven.” Look at the verses above this one. The beast blasphemes the Lord and those who “dwell in heaven” meaning belong and have chosen the Lord’s side of the conflict. The enemy’s goal is to steal, kill, and destroy the individual creations (mankind) of God. He wants to steal, kill, destroy their futures in Christ Jesus.
Revelation 13:8 is a future verse that is speaking about the future and the past, “whose names have not been found” meaning, the reader is being shown that if you “dwell on earth” and “worship the beast” then you will not be known by Jesus when His Book of Life (Note the specific change from Book of Life to the Book of Life of the Lamb). He owns the book and everyone that is in it. He knows, recognizes, acknowledges those that belong to Him. Those that do not, “I never knew you.”
That change from I knew you to I never knew you is based on our response to the Gospel. God always knows everything and everyone. When you accept Jesus, God chooses not to remember your sins because of Jesus.
Revelation 17:8, “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and will come.”
Notice “Book of Life is from the foundation of the world.” This phrase was also in the Rev. 13:8 verse.
**Key concept to always remember – all created-all names listed-but, not all will accept Jesus. (But is a contrast word.)
Foundation 2602 katabolḗ (from 2596 /katá, “exactly according to,” down from the most general to the most specific detail, “following all the way along,” and 906 /bállō, “to cast”) – properly, a foundation, cast according to a blueprint (original design); the substructure which determines the entire direction (destination) of all that follows; the foundation-plan, upon which the entire super-structure is built; (figuratively) the beginning (founding) that purposefully designs all that follows.
World 2889 kósmos (literally, “something ordered“) – properly, an “ordered system” (like the universe, creation); the world.
Notice that “kósmos” is ORDERED and not chaos! God is a God of order. I love this. I’ve always thought of the wacky cosmos as being chaos but not ordered. This is one of my favorite word studies. God is so good!
Book of Life, has all names written in it from the beginning of the world. Every person created has their name in that book. We have the opportunity to submit to God, accept His Son’s gift of salvation OR reject God, and reject salvation. Those names will be blotted out of the book. And that is part of the “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”
Matthew 7:23, “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”
Revelation 20:11-15, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
At the point of a person’s death of their flesh, or death in this world, one of two things happen:
- if they reject Jesus as their Lord and Savior, then their name is “blotted out” of the Book of Life.
- if they have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior then their names remain (never to be erased-Greek/blotted out-Hebrew).
Notice the timeline, John sees the great white throne (judgment). All who reject Jesus and His gift of salvation will stand before the great white (pure,holy) throne. Believers will not stand before the great white throne judgment. Believers will be judged but (contrast word) differently than non-believers.
The Book of Life is opened. Those that rejected Jesus on earth have had their names already blotted out of the Book of Life. Their names will not be found in the Book of Life. They will be judged by their own deeds without the blood of Jesus. They will stand before a Holy God “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” Their unholiness will be evident.
Often in the Bible when you see the word “fire,” it pertains to judgment. Hebrews 9:27, “And in as much as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.”
Those whose names are NOT found in the Lamb’s Book of Life will suffer judgment. They will be thrown (cast) into the lake of fire (lake of judgment). This is their second death, the death of their spirit, they will now live eternally without God. Alive but dead in their spirit. A fate we pray for no one to know (Hebrew, yada-intimately know and understand, experience) in Christ Jesus’ powerful Name!
I can’t help but think of the words of the song, “I Will Sing Of My Redeemer.”
Revelation 21:27, “and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
The word “but” is a contrast word. Nothing unclean, no abomination, no liar shall come into it (new Jerusalem, Rev. 21:2 which is the dwelling of God with man Rev. 21:3) BUT only clean, pure, truth, etc.
In the timeline of the Book of Revelation, the great white throne judgment has already happened. This verse is found in the New Jerusalem. No one’s name, who is found in the Book of Life at this point in the order of God’s plan will be “unrighteous” because those people who did not accept Jesus and His Righteousness have experienced their second death in the lake of fire. The names that remain in the Lamb’s Book of Life have been there since the beginning of the foundations of the earth. Remained there not to be blotted out. In there because of the righteousness of Jesus.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord that nothing I did or accomplish, I have or have not of my own ability, talent or skill had anything to do with my name being written in the Book of Life based on my works, deeds, words, skills, talents, or accomplishments.
My name is there because Jesus put it there and I later accepted His gift of salvation which kept it from being blotted out of the book. Praise the Lord, Oh my soul! It is well, with my soul. My soul has peace (In Hebrew, “Shalom” which means peace, wellness, well-being, soundness, health, safety, prosperity, wholeness, and completeness.)
Confidence that our names are in the book because of being a follower/believer in Christ Jesus can be found in:
Matthew 10:22, “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”
Mark 13:13, “You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”
Galatians 6:6-9, “The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
An example in the Old Testament of “blotting out” and “name remembered no more.”
Exodus 17:14, “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
Blot out, Hebrew “machah.” To blot (12), blotted (11), destroys (1), utterly blot (1), wash off (1), wipe (1), wipe…away (1), wiped (1), wipes (3), wiping (1).
Exodus 32:32 specifically, but here is Exodus 32:30-35 for context, “On the next day Moses said to the people, “You yourselves have committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the LORD, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” Then Moses returned to the LORD, and said, “Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves. “But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” The LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. “But go now, lead the people where I told you. Behold, My angel shall go before you; nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.” Then the LORD smote the people, because of what they did with the calf which Aaron had made.”
Blot out, Hebrew “machah.” To blot (12), blotted (11), destroys (1), utterly blot (1), wash off (1), wipe (1), wipe…away (1), wiped (1), wipes (3), wiping (1).
Deuteronomy 25:6, “It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.” (Example of inheritance and a person’s name with regard to inheritance and being included in God’s plan.)
Blot out, Hebrew “machah.” To blot (12), blotted (11), destroys (1), utterly blot (1), wash off (1), wipe (1), wipe…away (1), wiped (1), wipes (3), wiping (1).
Deuteronomy 25:19, “Therefore it shall come about when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.”
Blot out, Hebrew “machah.” To blot (12), blotted (11), destroys (1), utterly blot (1), wash off (1), wipe (1), wipe…away (1), wiped (1), wipes (3), wiping (1).
Amalek was a descendant of Esau, he was an enemy of Israel, therefore an enemy against the God of Israel.
Psalm 9:5, “You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever.”
Blot out, Hebrew “machah.” To blot (12), blotted (11), destroys (1), utterly blot (1), wash off (1), wipe (1), wipe…away (1), wiped (1), wipes (3), wiping (1).
Psalm 109:13, “Let his posterity be cut off; In a following generation let their name be blotted out.”
Blot out, Hebrew “machah.” To blot (12), blotted (11), destroys (1), utterly blot (1), wash off (1), wipe (1), wipe…away (1), wiped (1), wipes (3), wiping (1).
Psalm 69:27-28, “Add iniquity to their iniquity, and may they not come into Your righteousness. May they be blotted out of the book of life and may they not be recorded with the righteous.”
Blot out, Hebrew “machah.” To blot (12), blotted (11), destroys (1), utterly blot (1), wash off (1), wipe (1), wipe…away (1), wiped (1), wipes (3), wiping (1).
Book in Hebrew “Sepher” Life in Hebrew “Chai”
There are lots of other Bible verses, but this gives you the main idea! You want to respond to Jesus. You want to be known by Him by name. You want to be marked out for eternity! God is so good!
I was praying about this online group Bible study. I’m hungry for the Word of God, and I know others are too! As I was praying about which book of the Bible to start with based on your suggestions, the most votes are for Revelation so that is where we will go first. I woke up this morning with God prompting me to “test” with this lesson. It is a great segway into Revelation. All that to say, God highlighted to me that truth is precious and we should only learn the truth. All of us, me included! So go at your pace. And that will give me time to work on chapter one of Revelation. Grace and peace to you in Jesus’ Name! -Shahe Nahler
I am the author of a three book series, all of the books are about God changing me from my way to His way! Life is a process, people! A journey to walk out with God and it’s always better when God is in you, and you have a relationship with Him. That way, His way, you never walk out your faith journey alone but with Him!
You can also visit my website at www.shahesart.com for travel photos and Bible lessons, photography, and artwork.
Shahe Nahler 