Is Your Name Written There?

The Christian life, if lived authentically, will have its challenges. Tribulation can come from outside and from within, the latter often the result of our own actions and sins. That’s where overcoming is needed. Because we were each born in sin, with a sinful nature, we’re going to sin.

But when we sin, we have an advocate with God, His son Jesus (1 John 2:1), who will plead our case when we repent. That’s also part of the overcoming process. As we continue in the Christian life, we likely will find ourselves relying more and more on God for His provision where we fall short. As Paul told the early believers in Galatia, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ [Who now] lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

It’s important to remember that heaven is recording our actions, and these concluding verses in the message to Sardis suggest that those who do not overcome won’t wear the white garments or have their names preserved in the Book of Life. Nor, it appears, would Jesus confess the names of those sinners before God and the angels.

It’s a rather stark prospect: Overcome and experience paradise—or remain in your sins and die eternally. Paul again notes the dire situation: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24, 25).

One of the most famous hymns was written by Mary Ann Pepper Kidder, a prolific New England poet of the nineteenth century. She asks, “Is my name written there, on the page white and fair? In the book of Thy kingdom, is my name written there?” The good news is that in trusting Jesus, walking closely with Him, and praying both to confess sin and seek strengthening, we can know our name shall, indeed, “be written there”!

Holy Lord, keep our hearts tender and turned toward You. Grant us the strength to resist temptation and sin. May our names be written with the good believers of Sardis in the Book of Life!

For Further Study: Psalm 69:28; Malachi 3:17; Matthew 10:32

Key Bible Texts

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. (Revelation 3:5 KJV)