The Lamb's Book of Life, And The Eternal Will Of God For The Security Of Those Who Have Been Graciously Called To Come & Believe

A journal entry. One early morning of October. A study on my readings, on John 1:13, Ephesians 1:4, Revelation 13:8, 17:8 and 21:27. 

From eternity past, even before the beginning of the beginning, the Lamb wrote a book. 

 

In this book were special names. Names He had elected, in His gracious sovereignty, to be His very own people. His divine, covenantal will, was to bless them with the continual light of His presence, and to bring them to Himself, there to dwell before Him in blissful glory, for all eternity.

These names were written in tender affection, with great love, and with great zeal, amidst a great plan to reveal to them this love, through sacrifice. He had written these names down permanently, determined and precisely, without any intention to erase or blot them out. He had written them down from eternity, and there will they remain throughout all eternity. He who wrote them embodies eternity, for He is eternity, and whom He loves He loves with a love that knows no end and fears no separation—a love unto all eternity.

 

It came to pass that our Lord, by the Spirit of His Word, brought forth everything that is. Thus, at His pleasure, time itself began to measure the span of earth. Yet He who made all these things stands utterly outside the bounds of that which He created, because he is transcendent and eternal. The evening and the morning following were the first day. And with that first turning of the sun, the sacred story of the redemption of His chosen Names began to unfold. God allows man to fall. He deemed it unnecessary to even stop the offense of the first of His creations, because the laying down of the first law, that is, not to eat of the fruit, implied that death was allowed to fall upon that first one, and alas, upon all his hapless offspring, that all might know the barrenness of separation from His presence, and the magnitude of His redeeming grace when it is finally revealed.

 

Had we remained in a perfect, unfallen creation, we would have known the Father merely as a glorious Creator, but never as the agonizing, tender heart of God. If the shadow of death had not fallen upon us, how could we have grasped the immeasurable worth and life-giving Light of the Son? If there were no wounds, we would not have known how he heals. If there were no need, we would not have known his bountiful filling. If there were no sorrow, we would not have known how he comforts his beloved even in their sleep. Had we not been utterly lost in the wilderness of sin, we would never have felt the strain of the passionate love that compelled Him to seek us until we were found. If we had not fallen into bondage, we would not have known how it is to be redeemed. If despair and helplessness had not brought us low to the dust, we would never have felt the desperate, sweet need for a precious Savior. If we had not died, we would not have known the fullness of a love that was wholly willing to sacrifice all, to die as us, with us, and for us, and then, by His conquering power, to raise us up again—all for the sake of His unwavering love for those precious names written from before the foundations of the world.

 

These very names, written with divine particularity, refer to individuals whose being was conceived in secret darkness, curiously formed in the lowest parts of the earth when they were yet imperfect creatures, predestined to be redeemed at the appointed, sacred moment in time, and forever conformed to the blessed image of the One who first penned their entry. Their election stood firm, wholly independent of anything they had ever done, or anything they ever would commit in the future. These chosen souls were brought forth into His creation, not by any purpose of the mortal flesh, nor by the fickle will of man, but solely by the perfect will and sovereign purpose of God Himself. It is He alone who recorded them in that eternal register, and it is He that will surely work in them, giving them both the desire to obey and the power to perform according to His good pleasure. He has minded to author a holy work in each of them, and to faithfully bring it to its complete and beautiful perfection. For He had it settled in His heart that they should be the very living vessels through which He would display His magnificent, surpassing glory to the world.

 

Verily, these sacred names were never inscribed for the purpose of earthly excellence, but rather for deep and abiding weakness, so that the very Strength of the One who wrote them might be fully magnified in them. These souls were purposed to be broken in time, that they might become shining recipients of a new, radiant nature, birthed through the potent, regenerating power of God into a New Creature, forever lifted up from the mire and the clay. By their new birth, these names will naturally hate anything that offends their God, however failing they may be when left to the weakness of their own flesh. They will pursue the holiness of God with both a great zeal and a great desperation, and their God is well pleased to tenderly prune them towards an ever-blooming fruitfulness.

He who wrote their names from eternity past promised never to cast them away once they have been gently drawn to Him by the Father's love. He is as ready to bestow His forgiveness upon them, as they are to plead for that forgiveness daily for the failings of their mortal flesh. They fall short of the glory of God daily, yes, but this is of no final matter! For God has already forever claimed their hearts for His own. He holds out the golden scepter to them, for He not only allows them entrance into His royal courts, but sweetly invites them and bids them, "Come!" He is theirs, and they are irrevocably His.

Thus, they live in constant yearning for His presence, His prayer, His communion, and His glory. And behold the ultimate comfort: He intercedes for these names and these names alone, for He prays not for the indifferent world, but for His very own. He secured them before the world began, and He ensures their endurance to the very end. No power will there ever be that could possibly blot their names out, for there is no power in creation that can change the eternal, settled mind of God. What He has written, He has surely written!

 

This is the glorious reason why our Lord stands with such bold, unwavering confidence, declaring that none of those precious names the Father did place into His keeping hand will ever, by any means, be eternally lost. Their acceptance is founded not upon what they are able to accomplish in this fleeting time, nor upon how grievously they may fail in their daily walk, but entirely upon the fact that He who wrote them down was minded before the first moment of time, even before the foundations of the world were laid, to claim these names as absolutely His own. They were intended to be written down not by any fragile merit of their own, for their existence was secured and their names were recorded even before anything came into being, when they had done nothing yet, neither good nor evil. Their entire hope rests solely by the perfect merit of the One who wrote them, who is both the beginning and the end of their salvation.

 

Thus, it stands immutably true: Salvation is only and solely of the LORD! He is the Divine Planter of the wheat and the Holy Destroyer of the tares. He is the tender Seeker of the lost and the righteous, enemy of the world’s proud dominion. He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith, the mighty creator of a new heaven and a new earth, and the faithful Redeemer of His own chosen people. He is the Propitiation of their every offence, providing the absolute security for all those whom He has graciously empowered to call upon His sacred name. He is the One, the Truth, the Way, and the Life!

And these names, so dearly purchased, will He effectually call through the glorious proclamation of His Gospel. These names alone will hear His voice, and these alone will come to Him and believe in Him with a saving faith. Ah, that faith! It came forth from Him alone, being graciously given to those whom He ordained should receive it, and it will return to Him in perfect praise, accomplishing the very security of those whom He foreknew. Mark this ultimate, blessed certainty: Not one falls. Not one name is lost.

 

His will is inviolable. 

 

These names whom He graciously minded to be conformed to the beautiful image of His Son, are the same souls to whom His Son shall be gloriously married when He brings to its joyful end all that He has started. To these blessed names, He has lovingly opened their eyes to see and given them ears to hear, so that their hearts would truly understand the truth, and effectually turn to God from the darkness of death unto His marvelous, life-giving light, and be perfectly healed. To these names, and these alone, hath He bestowed the inestimable gift of eternal life and the sacred power to become the very Sons of the Most High King. He knew them intimately before everything was created; He knows them tenderly as everything is now unfolding; and He will know them fully when they are finally reunited in glory with the One who thought of them, who lived for them, who died for them, and who rose again from the grave for them. He it is, who ascended into heaven and sat the right hand of God—before time began, even before the foundation of the world.

 

These blessed names will find, upon reflection, that the mere thought of being written down before everything was created, regardless of their daily falling short of God's glory, or all they might ever accomplish in this brief time of life, is a truth extremely too wonderful to grasp and utterly incomprehensible. Yet, it is oh, so precious and priceless—the very reason and purpose of their existence! It is an out-of-this-world treasure to behold, filling the soul both with holy awe and deep gratitude. 

They rejoice that their names are recorded, not merely in the book of life during this fleeting lifetime, but secured before everything came into being. These names shall ride forever upon the palms of God's own hand, forever graven with the wounds of the nail and the hammer. They will sing new songs, bearing new names, and forever delight in His joy. His protection, His perseverance, His goodness, and His boundless mercy and forgiveness, and His sustaining truth—these follow them all the days of their earthly lives. And they shall, at last and without end, dwell in the house of Him who wrote their names in unfathomable, unchanging love, forever.

Amen.