What is the Book of Life?
The Bible speaks of a book kept by God in which names are written, and a person's eternal future turns on whether their name is found there. Commentators treat it as a register of the living — but they differ over whether every name in it stays there, and that question shapes how the passages about names being "blotted out" are read.
A Register of Names
The picture behind the phrase is an official list. One reference work lays out where the book appears in Scripture and notes that the passages do not all speak the same way:
Morrish Bible DictionaryA registry of persons' names as living. One (also called simply God's book) may be a book of those who only have a name to live, and whose names may therefore be blotted out: Exodus 32:32-33; Psalm 69:28; Revelation 3:5; Revelation 22:19. Another is a book of the saved, from which none will be erased: Philippians 4:3; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:12, 15; Revelation 21:27. A third (called simply 'the book') contains the names of the remnant of Israel: Daniel 12:1.
The Book Belongs to the Lamb
Twice the book is named after Christ as the Lamb who was killed, and that title is not decoration. It ties the register to His death:
Frederick W. GrantThe book of life is accordingly "the book of life of the Lamb slain" (Rev. 13:8; 21:27), and being written in this book is the only possible escape from the judgment of the second death (20:15).
Written Before the World Began
Revelation dates the writing of these names to the founding of the world, which pushes the whole matter back behind anything a person has done:
Raymond K. CampbellThe Lamb's book of life contains names written in it before the founding of the world, as Revelation 13:8 and 17:8 tell us: "written from the founding of the world in the book of life of the slain Lamb." This is the book of the counsels and purposes of God, who knows the end from the beginning and wrote in it, before the course of human responsibility began, the names of all who were chosen in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid (Eph. 1:4). These are true, born-again believers in Christ, whom He calls, justifies, and glorifies (Romans 8:30)... The Lamb's book of life is the record of reality, and out of that book no name is blotted out.
In Revelation 13 that early writing does practical work. It explains why some people are not swept along by the beast:
Frederick W. GrantThere, this fact of their being written in the book from the foundation of the world is given as their security from being deceived by and worshipping the beast. Sovereign grace, that is, is their only and sufficient security.
Names That Are Blotted Out
Against that stands the warning to Sardis, a church told it had a name for being alive while it was dead. One explanation is that a register also exists which men themselves have filled in:
Frederick W. GrantHere, on the other hand, the book has got into man's hand, and he writes names in it as he pleases. It is a figure, of course, all through. The Lord, in His own time, corrects the book, and then He blots out the names of those to whom only the name belongs.
Commentators Differ
Not everyone divides the passages into separate books. Some hold that Scripture speaks throughout of a single register, in which a name written by God stands and a name written by profession does not:
J. N. DarbyEverywhere it is one and the same book of life, and therefore it is assumed here that they have life; but if God has written the name in it before the foundation of the world, it will not be blotted out.
Both readings land in the same place: what God writes cannot be undone, and a merely claimed place cannot survive inspection.
The Last Examination
At the great white throne the dead are judged by their works out of the books — and then a further book is opened. It settles everything:
J. T. MawsonAnother book also, the book of life, will be opened, and it will be the final test of all. And while every man will be judged there according to their works, what will irrevocably seal their doom is that they have no part in the book of life; they are indeed the dead, and this is the second death; for whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
A Present Joy
When His disciples came back thrilled that even demons obeyed them, Jesus pointed them to something better — their names written in heaven:
F. B. HoleThe figure is a simple one. Our names are enrolled in the city or district where we live. The Lord said to these men, in effect, a heavenly citizenship is to be yours, and that is a greater cause of rejoicing than any power given to you on earth.
Summary
- Register. The book of life is God's list of names, kept in heaven, of those counted as living.
- Lamb. It is called the book of life of the Lamb slain; being written there is the one escape from the second death.
- Written. Names are recorded from before the world's founding — sovereign grace, not achievement, is what secures them.
- Tested. At the great white throne this book is the final test; a name absent means the lake of fire.
- Rejoice. Christ told His disciples that names written in heaven outrank every power on earth — the surest ground of joy a person can have.