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“And the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.” Running all through the Scripture, there is this idea that God keeps books. I do not think there is a book up there in which He is writing. God never forgets, and He doesn’t need that book, and He doesn’t even need a computer.

This matter of the book that was written is also mentioned in the Book of Revelation, and in chapter 3 we find the suggestion that He is apt to erase a name: “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. 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” (Rev. 3:4–5).

This is about as strong a language as you can get, and it is, very frankly, one of the most difficult passages in the Book of Revelation to understand. I do not think that God has a set of books that He is keeping in heaven. But the only way that you and I can understand this is through this figure of speech that He uses. I can understand it when He says that He puts down in the Book of Life the names of those who are saved. I can understand that He puts down in a book those who will receive a reward or some recognition. This makes it clear to me. But I don’t believe that God has a literal book up there—though He may have. We are also told in the last part of the Book of Revelation that when the lost are brought before the Great White Throne, the books will be opened, and there are several of them. There is also the book of those who are saved (see Rev. 20).

I would like to illustrate it in this way: To me it is more or less like the report card I used to get in school. You get a report card if you are a student; all you have to do to get a report card is to enroll. You get into the Lamb’s Book of Life by accepting Christ as your Savior, and that will never be removed. You have a report card; you are in the Lamb’s Book of Life; you’re enrolled. Now you are going to start making grades. Now He’s going to put down how you are doing with your Bible study. What grade is He giving you on that? Are you making A’s these days? Or are you failing the course? How is your life for Him? How is your service for Him? He takes note of all these things, and they are recorded.

Therefore I believe that when He says to the church of Sardis that names are removed from the Book of Life, that names are blotted out; it has to do with service because that is what He is talking about there. It has to do, with the service that they render. There will be many of us who get a report card, but some are going to be a failure in the Christian life. Paul said in his Epistle to the Corinthians that our works are to be tested by fire (see 1 Cor. 3:11–15). If a man’s work is all hay and stubble and it is all consumed by fire, will he be saved? Paul says, “Yes. He’ll be saved, but so as by fire.” There are going to be a lot of people in heaven who will smell like they were bought at a fire sale—and they were—a brand plucked from the burning, if you please. They did nothing, and nothing was put on the report card.

“A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.” God simply doesn’t need a book to remember things because He is the One who really has a computer mind—it’s all there. The record is of their works, their service, their love for Him—those are the things that are recorded. Salvation is free. It is by faith, never by works. After you have been saved, that is when your works really begin to count, and they become all-important. This book of remembrance is a very beautiful and wonderful thing.

We find God’s “book” mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. In Psalm 56:8 we read, “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” The psalmist says, “Thou tellest my wanderings.” The Lord knows exactly where you’ve been all the time. Maybe your neighbors, your church members, and your pastor don’t know—but God knows. The darkness is light to Him. He knows where you’ve been, and He knows what you’ve done. “Put thou my tears into thy bottle”—I think that is a very lovely thing. My friend, that godly mother who is weeping because of a wayward child, God has put those tears into a bottle. Can you imagine that? How wonderful it is that He has taken note of them! The man who has served God but has been disappointed by how his brethren have treated him and has wept tears over it—to him God says, “I’ve put those tears in a bottle.” Finally, the psalmist says, “Are they not in thy book?” There is a book that records our lives, my friend. I have always thought that is probably going to be sort of like a movie that He will run through for us. You will see your life from birth to death, and it will all be there. It won’t be what the preacher said about you at your funeral, about how wonderful you were and what a great church member you were. God is going to run it just like it was. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see mine. But I guess I’ll have to take a look at it someday.

McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 3:1026-1027