Are we to deduce that it is possible for a believer to have his name blotted out of the book of life? (see Revelation 3:5)?
Now, let us look at Revelation 3:5. It reads like this:
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. (KJV)
It is our Lord speaking, and he is addressing the church in Sardis. People therefore argue that, when our Lord promises, 'I will never blot his name out of the book of life', we are to deduce that it is possible for a believer to have his name blotted out of the book of life. It is only if a believer is steadfast and faithful to the end that Christ promises his name will not be blotted out. But a believer who does not overcome will have his name blotted out of the book.
But first of all we must ask ourselves a prior question that is fundamental to the exegesis of the passage. When our Lord says, 'He who overcomes', what does he mean by the term 'overcomes'?
We may get a straight and clear answer to that question if we look at 1 John 5:4–5:
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Here we are told exactly who the overcomer is: 'Who is it that overcomes the world?'—'the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.' The believer is the overcomer. We may confirm that by looking at Revelation 21:7–8:
The one who conquers [overcomes] will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.
You will notice from these verses that there are only two groups. There is the group made up of the ones who overcome: they are sons of God. Then there is the other large group that suffers the penalty of eternal perdition in the lake of fire. There is not a third group: a person who is a believer but somehow does not manage to overcome. You are either an overcomer, that is, a believer, or you are not an overcomer, because you are not a believer.
But someone will say, 'But isn't it possible for a man to be a believer at the start and thus to be an overcomer, and then subsequently to fail to overcome, to be defeated, and therefore cease to be a believer?'
To answer that we must turn back to 1 John 5:4, which begins like this: 'For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.' This is a positive, clear, categorical statement. The one that is born of God does overcome the world. If a person is not an overcomer, it is because he or she has not been born of God; but if a person has been born again, has been born of God, he or she does overcome the world.
This is a categorical statement and I do not see any way of getting around it: no way of arguing that what is born of God sometimes overcomes the world, but sometimes does not.
So, our Lord is saying that the one who overcomes, that is, the true believer—the one that is 'born of God'—may know it as a certainty that his or her name is in the book of life and will never be blotted out.
But you will perhaps say, 'The very fact that our Lord promises some that their names will not be blotted out of the book of life must imply that some will have their names blotted out of the book of life.'
But that is not necessarily true. Our Lord is here encouraging the believer, encouraging the overcomer, with the fact of his eternal security, that his name will never be blotted out. That is what our Lord does in less picturesque language elsewhere:
Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24)
In other words, he will never come into condemnation; his name will never be blotted out of the book. But it would not be fair to imply by that, that some will have their names blotted out of the book. If the believer is eternally secure, because his name is not only written in the book, but will never be blotted out of the book, you must then ask, 'How does a person get his or her name written into the book, for, unless a person's name is written into the book, the name cannot be blotted out of the book?'
If it is the fact that the only way to get your name written in the book is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then, once the name is written in, Christ assures you it will never be blotted out. There is no comfort here, on the other hand, for the unbeliever, for his name is not in the book. Therefore, of course, it will never be blotted out, because it never was in. Whereas, the name of the believer is written in, with the assurance that it will never be blotted out.
