Question:
What does these verses mean, a saved person can lose their salvation, or are these verses regarding the unsaved? Exodus 32:33 “And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” Revelation 3:5 “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.”
Answer:
Exodus 32:31-33 says, “And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, IF THOU WILT FORGIVE THEIR SIN—; AND IF NOT, BLOT ME, I PRAY THEE, OUT OF THY BOOK WHICH THOU HAST WRITTEN. And the LORD said unto Moses, WHOSOEVER HATH SINNED AGAINST ME, HIM WILL I BLOT OUT OF MY BOOK.”
Many people assume that Moses is talking about the Book of Life, like as in Revelation 3:5, “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.” If Moses was talking about the Book of Life, and saying that he would be willing to die and be lost forever, for his people’s sake; then he, like the apostle Paul, would just be using a figure of speech to show how much they longed to see their people saved. Romans 9:1-4 says, “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. FOR I COULD WISH THAT MYSELF WERE ACCURSED FROM CHRIST FOR MY BRETHREN, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.”
Sometimes you hear people say, “I’d give my right arm to have a car like that!” That is just a figure of speech. Even if they would give their right arm, it would not help them get the car. And even so, if Moses and Paul could have somehow given up their own salvation, it would have done no good for their people, because both Moses and Paul were sinners, and they could not save anyone. Only pure, sinless blood could save a soul, and the only one fitting those requirements was the virgin born, sinless Son of God. I John 1:7,8 says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST HIS SON CLEANSETH US FROM ALL SIN. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
When the Lord replied to Moses, “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” He was not talking about the “Book of Life,” but about the “BOOK OF THE LIVING” (those who are presently alive upon earth.) Psalm 69:26-28 says, “For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of THE BOOK OF THE LIVING, and not be written with the righteous.” God has a book in which is written the name of every person alive upon earth. When that person dies, his/her name would be blotted out of that book.
The Bible is clear that sometimes God does take people out of the Book of the Living because of sin (that is, their sin is of such nature that God requires their lives for it). I John 5:16,17 says, “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. THERE IS A SIN UNTO DEATH: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.”
To say that God blots names out of the Book of Life, would be to contradict the clear teaching of Scripture. John 10:28,29 says, “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”
NO NAMES ARE EVER BLOTTED OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE. In fact, the names of those people who do not receive the Lord Jesus Christ never did appear in the Book of Life. Revelation 17:8 says, “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, WHOSE NAMES WERE NOT WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”
So it never is the case of a name being blotted out of the Book of Life. God already knows those who will reject Him, and so their names never did appear in the Book of Life. He also knows those who will receive Him in their lifetimes, and so He entered their names into the Book of Life at the foundation of the world.