“BUT ONLY THOSE who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27). “In the Lamb’s book of life”! Names written in the book of life of the God who gave Himself as a sacrifice to redeem men!
There are just two books in the universe. They are the only two books that count, and every man’s name is in one or the other: the Lamb’s book of life and the self’s book of death. There are just two groups of people in the world—those who make themselves God, who are centered in themselves as God, who refuse to surrender themselves and insist on asserting themselves and working out from themselves as God. Their names are written in the self’s book of death. The verdict has been pronounced: “Whoever would save his life will lose it” (Mark 8:35). The other group are those who are humble enough to renounce themselves as God and surrender themselves to the acceptance of the self-giving of God in the cross. They are humble enough to receive the gift of God. Their names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. They live, for they come under the law: “Whoever loses his life . . . will save it” (Mark 8:35). They live now and will live eternally. The other group perishes—it perishes now and will perish forever.
The Lamb’s book of life! That book is now open for checking up to see if your name is there, and for registration. Your name is there if you are in Christ. You are in Christ if you have surrendered yourself to Christ with all you have—you are His. You are out of Christ if the self is on the throne of your life, no matter how religious you may be. If the self is on the throne, then you are registered in the book of death, for everything out of Christ is subject to decay and death. Everything in Christ is under the law of life—it is written in the Lamb’s book of life. This life is spelled with a capital “L”—it is Life.
O Lamb of God, Thou art the God of the great self-giving, and Thy self-giving has broken me down. Thy self-giving has caught on within me. I give myself to Thyself in the deepest self-giving of which I am capable. I thank Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My name is written in the Lamb’s book of life if two words are written across my heart: “in Christ.”
