“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” Revelation 3:5
The Lord has just explained there are a few believers in Sardis. Now He encourages them to endure, to persist, to overcome. It is interesting He does not tell them to leave that dead church. The
reason is situations are different. In some cases they may have no choice. In other cases, they should get out. The Holy Spirit must guide each believer based on the situation.
As with all the other characteristics of overcomers, each applies
to all overcomers in general but the Lord selects these particular
for the few believers left in Sardis. This is what they need to hear.
He who overcomes We know who this is. God leaves no doubt in His word. “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (I John 5). Overcomer only refers to believers.
Shall be clothed God is the one who clothes the overcomer with these garment. The word is first used in the Sermon on the Mount. “Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” These believers may be despised in their own church but God Himself has personally arrayed them in heavenly garments.
In white garments These are the unstained brilliant white garments worn before the throne of God.
I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life Second the Lord says He will not blot (obliterate, erase or wipe out) out their name (character, or person) from the Book of Life. The Book of Life, in this context, is the set of names of those who will live with God forever in heaven. It is the roll of those who are genuinely saved. Every person will be blotted. The Lord either will either blot out one’s sins because He paid for them at the cross or God will blot out the person’s name from the Book of Life because they rejected God’s gift of forgiveness. Many names will be blotted out, the Lord promises the faithful few it will not be them.
But I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels This statement brings unbelievable joy to the believer at Sardis. He lives in a church that is dead – it has denied the Lord’s name and His word. The overcomer would remember the Lord’s statement in Matthew 10. “Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” Perhaps the believer in Sardis lived in fear. (Denying the Lord is an awful sin. We can understand why Peter thought he was through as the Lord’s disciple after his three denials.) Was the believer in Sardis to be forsaken by the Lord because of the deadness of the church he was in? The true believer never need live in fear. Not only will the believer’s name never be blotted out of God’s Book of Life, the Lord Himself will declare to God the Father that these faithful belong to Him.
What can we learn? First true believers are not forgotten by God. Second, the few true believers in Sardis have a responsibility to live faithfully for the Lord, even inside a dead church. This is not easy. Christ showed us the reception organized religion gives God’s truth. The fact Sardis was called by Christ’s name did not mean that His whole truth would be accepted. The believers in Sardis would be persecuted except for speaking and living God’s truth. The sad part is it would happen within the very church where they worshipped the Lord.