Get your name in the Book of Life
Step by Step
Only way to be saved is through Jesus
"There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:12 (referring to Jesus in verse 10)
How do you believe? You hear the message which you have now heard
"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Romans 10:17
You will be given the right to become children of God
"But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God." John 1:12-13
Confess Jesus as Lord and believe
"..if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." Romans 10:9-10
Repent and be baptized for forgiveness and you will receive the Holy Spirit
"Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”” Acts 2:38-39
Follow the Spirit
"And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit." Romans 8:3c-4
Now you are free, do those things that result in eternal life
"But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life." Romans 6:22
Be slaves to righteous living, become holy, work at living in peace with everyone
"Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy." Romans 6:19c
"Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord." Hebrews 12:14
Remain in his love
“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you." John 15:9-12
Protected through your faith and wonderful joy ahead
"Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while."
1 Peter 1:3c-6
He's given us both freedom from the power of sin so we are not controlled by it, and the empowering help of the Holy Spirit so we can obey him and live righteously. Therefore, adding together the scriptures we've read, if we remain in him and the faith by which he protects us, he will complete his work in us:
"And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." Philippians 1:6
Be among the few who ever find it
““Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it!." Matthew 7:13-14 This passage also makes it clear that polling people's opinions is not a great way to make decisions because the majority aren't even on the path of life!
Begin your relationship
Talking with God and humbling yourself before him is a way to begin your relationship.
Repenting of sin and confessing that Jesus is Lord while believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead is done practically in prayer.
"But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
"So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!"
2 Corinthians 5:17
"throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy." Ephesians 4:22-24
Recap and Considerations
You saw at the beginning of this site that "anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire" in Revelation 20:15. You read that the Bible calls this "the second death" and saw there is no life for you enslaved to sin because that is exactly where it will take you. "For the payoff of sin is death" Romans 6:23. Many translations read, "For the wages of sin is death." What you get for sinning is death.
You discovered there is a different outcome for those who are victorious; who are overcomers.
“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death." Revelation 2:11
In the book of Revelation chapters 1-3, you can read that God sent an angel to deliver the revelation of Jesus Christ to John so that his servants could know what was going to happen. John then sent letters in Revelation 1:4 to "the seven churches that are in the province of Asia." At the end of each letter, there is a promise to the victorious.
Some translations address "to him that overcomes" and others address them as "the one who conquers." It has been put upon us to overcome, conquer and win the victory. There are therefore a total of seven promises given to the victorious, conquering overcomers including that their names will never be erased from the Book of Life and they will be citizens in the city of God, the new Jerusalem, that comes down from heaven. You saw for yourself that scripture teaches that the victorious are those who obey God to the very end. "To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end," Revelation 2:26
You learned that his commandments are not burdensome and that he gives you the empowerment of his Holy Spirit, so you are not alone. His divine power has been bestowed on you for all you need and it comes through the knowledge of him. So pursue this knowledge of him and his promises in his word that you may become a partaker of the divine nature and escape corruption as we are told in 2 Peter 1:3-4:
"his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire."
He is at work in you as you partner with him to continue working out your salvation
"So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort—for the sake of his good pleasure—is God." Philippians 2:12-13
Your free will is intact so you must choose to let the Spirit control your mind
"Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.
So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)" Romans 8:5-9
His yoke is easy to bear and his load is not hard to carry
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.” Matthew 11:28-30
It's the corruption of the world that is hard. We experience suffering in this world, but his load is not hard to carry.
"In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have conquered the world.” John 16:33b
There will be cost either way. We can suffer for the sake of doing what is right and must be prepared to do so instead of satisfying our flesh. But it needs to be compared to the cost of eternal suffering, and viewed with the gain of eternal life.
"But in fact, if you happen to suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed." 1 Peter 3:14
"For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil." 1 Peter 3:17
So first count the cost
"A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
“Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own." Luke 14:25-33 NLT
Here I want to include an excerpt from the translator notes provided in the NET Translation for the last verse above. "The application of the saying is this: Discipleship requires that God be in first place. The reference to renunciation of all his own possessions refers to all earthly attachments that have first place."
Is there really any cost that could be greater than the second death?
"More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:8-14
A Prevalent Deception
At this point, you have seen the evidence is overwhelming that we can't live immoral lives, yet many churches today teach this in some form. Earlier you read a warning about this teaching from the book of Jude, but it's so prevalent today that I want to help you recognize and avoid it. It generally states that even if we live immoral lives, we're not at risk of condemnation because we are "once saved, always saved." It's often not stated this directly and many within the church who have received the teaching aren't truly aware of the deception being the same one we're warned against in Jude. The logical conclusion to what they are teaching is still the same, even if stated more vaguely. It's often presented with an interpretation of a small number of certain scriptures that must ignore the bulk of other scripture or change their meaning.
Here is one such verse. "My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand." John 10:27-29
This is a joyful truth; that no one can snatch you from his hand! But it's interpreted to mean that includes yourself, as in you cannot snatch yourself from his hand and therefore can never fall away. Following this logic to its end; this means that even while a practice of sin may not be endorsed, if you do continually practice sin you'll still be saved because "once saved, always saved." If you have read through the site before reading this page, you will have seen many scriptures that already make such interpretation impossible.
They would teach something along these lines; that once you've come to believe in Jesus, although you should live a life of gratitude (this caveat is often included), it doesn't ultimately matter what you do because what Christ did was enough. In all the scriptures you have read on this site, have you found that to be true? Or have you read that God also assigns certain responsibility to the believer?
What Christ did for us is sufficient to save us, but the false teaching omits his requirement upon us which denies the very teachings of Christ such as John 15:10, "If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love." Or Matthew 7:21, "“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven—only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven."
Remember, even the demons believe (and that does not save them)
"You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?"
James 2:17b-20
Why do they tremble? Torment awaits them
Matthew 8:28b-29 says, "...two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were extremely violent, so that no one was able to pass by that way. They cried out, “Son of God, leave us alone! Have you come here to torment us before the time?”
I'm not suggesting demons can be saved at all, but because the scripture itself uses them as an example of a faith that doesn't save, I share these passages here.
Not by faith alone
"So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone." James 2:24
What we think, speak and do demonstrate what we believe.
Some churches outright exclude repentance as a requirement at all, others deny the command to prove that repentance by obedience. You and I have now both seen that what we do matters. Even in the passage you read above from Philippians, you were reading the words of the apostle Paul (co-written with Timothy) regarding the resurrection of the dead, saying "not that I have already obtained it" and "I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet." As you read the warning this time, notice the readers were being urged to defend the faith. I've addressed this again for that very reason; because getting the message right is paramount to salvation.
Here it is:
“Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” Jude 3-4
There are those who teach this who may not realize they have believed a lie as they learned it from ungodly people who had wormed their way into the churches to teach it. If you have been deceived in this way, I'm deeply sorry. I hope you can see the truth presented. For those who have come under this teaching and want more help, there is a youtube channel that at the time of this writing is called Soteriology by Leighton Flowers. He very kindly sheds more light on this topic with great clarity and came out from it himself. May God bless and reward you as you walk in truth.
Your Name
Jesus had sent out 72 disciples. He gave them power over the enemy and they were so excited about experiencing this authority that when they returned, they were telling him about it. What he told them to actually rejoice over can now be true for you:
"But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.” Luke 10:20
"All who are victorious will be clothed in white.
I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine."
Revelation 3:5
There is another message to the victorious from the book of Revelation that I want to share with you.
“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.
To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven.
And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it." Revelation 2:17
Your new name contains a message so personal that you are the only one who will even understand it.
This demonstrates the intimacy of God's love for those who belong to him.
You now know how to be free from the power of sin and get your name in the Book of Life!
"We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set
free from the power of sin.
And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him." Romans 6:6-8
For more about what waits for you in God's kingdom, and what the Bible describes happening before he reigns on earth, click next for The Coming Kingdom