INTENTIONAL FAITH · THE PROMISE
Yes. And you don’t have to wait until you die to find out.
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
1 John 5:13
Notice that John doesn’t say “so that you may hope” or “so that you may guess.” He says know. God wants his children to have settled assurance, not anxious uncertainty.
The name in the book
Ancient cities kept a list of their citizens, and guards at the gates checked names against it. That’s the picture behind Revelation 21:27, which says that only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will enter the holy city.
Ruthanna Metzgar, a professional singer, learned this lesson in an unforgettable way. She was asked to sing at the wedding of a very wealthy man, with a lavish reception planned atop one of Seattle’s tallest towers. After the ceremony she and her husband climbed the staircase to the banquet hall, where a host stood at the door with a guest book. He searched for their names and couldn’t find them. “But I’m the singer,” she protested. “I sang for this wedding!” The host replied, kindly but firmly, that it didn’t matter who she was or what she’d done. Without a name in the book, there was no admission. They were escorted past tables of beautiful food, into the service elevator, and down to the parking garage.
Driving home in silence, her husband finally asked what had happened. She admitted that when the invitation came, she’d been busy and never bothered to send back her RSVP. Surely, she’d thought, the singer wouldn’t need one. Then she began to weep, not just for the banquet she’d missed, but because she had tasted, in a small way, what it will be like for those who stand before Christ and find their names are not written in his book.
Many people assume that the good they’ve done will get them in: attending church, being baptized, singing in the choir, serving the hungry. Those are good things. But none of them is an RSVP. Jesus warned that on that day many will point to their religious activity, and he will tell them, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21–23). What matters is whether we have personally responded to his invitation.
An old tombstone in an Indiana cemetery bears a warning to passersby: as I am now, so you will be, so prepare for death and follow me. Someone later scratched a reply beneath it: they weren’t content to follow until they knew which way the deceased had gone. That’s exactly the right instinct. If you were driving to Florida, you wouldn’t just start the car and hope. You’d check the map. The journey to eternity deserves at least that much care.
For reflection
- Do you know, with settled confidence, that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life? Why or why not?
- What “good things” are people tempted to rely on instead of responding to Christ’s invitation?
- Have you sent your RSVP?