In verse 2 the Lord says to “establish the things which remain, which were about to die.” “The things which remain” are the things lost and restored by the Reformation, such as justification by faith and the open Bible. Although these things were restored, they “were about to die.” Hence, the Protestant Church needs revivals to keep things alive.
In verse 2 the Lord also says, “I have not found your works completed before My God.” Nothing begun in the Reformation has been completed by the Protestant churches. Therefore, the church in Philadelphia (3:7-13), signifying the church in recovery, is needed for the completion. In the eyes of God, there are no completed works in the so-called reformed churches.
In 3:5 we have the Lord’s promise to the overcomers of this stage. To overcome here means to overcome the deadness of the Protestant churches, that is, to overcome dead Protestantism. The whole of verse 5 is the Lord’s promise to the overcomers. It will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom after He comes back.
In 3:4 the Lord says, “But you have a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.” Garments in the Bible signify what we are in our walk and living. To defile the garments means particularly to stain them with deadness. Death is more defiling before God than sin (Lev. 11:24-25; Num. 6:6, 7, 9). In this verse the defilement denotes anything of the death nature. The defilement in Sardis was not the defilement of sin but the defilement of death.
Speaking of those who have not defiled their garments, the Lord says, “They shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.” White not only signifies purity but also approvedness. White garments here signify the walk and living which are unspotted by death and which will be approved by the Lord. It is a qualification for walking with the Lord, especially in the coming kingdom.
If you read the context of Revelation 2 and 3, you will see that every time the Lord makes a promise in these seven epistles, it, strictly speaking, refers to the coming kingdom. It never refers to our eternal destiny but to our future in the coming kingdom. This is the basic and governing principle in understanding all the promises in these seven epistles. In 3:4 the Lord promises that the living ones, those who have not defiled their garments, will walk with Him in white. This will be during the millennium. To walk with the Lord in white means to walk with Him during those thousand years.
In 3:5a the Lord says, “He who overcomes, he shall be clothed in white garments.” This will be a prize to the overcomers in the millennial kingdom. In what they have been walking in this age will be a prize to them in the coming age.
Being clothed in white garments involves our experience of Christ as the second of the two garments needed by every Christian. The first garment is the garment of salvation, signifying Christ as our righteousness objectively. In Luke 15, when the prodigal son returned home, the father had the best robe prepared for him. The first thing the father did was to have this robe placed upon his returned son. Wearing that robe, the prodigal son was justified in the presence of the father. This means that he was justified in Christ and that Christ had become his justifying covering. He was covered by Christ as His righteousness. Thus, the garment of justification, the first garment, is for salvation. However, in addition to this, we need another garment to make us approved and well-pleasing to the Lord. The “fine linen, bright and pure” in Revelation 19:8 denotes this second garment. This garment is not a matter of Christ as our objective righteousness but of experiencing Christ as our subjective righteousness. This garment is for the reward. The white garments mentioned in 3:5 refer to the second garment.
Concerning the overcomer in this stage of the church, the Lord says in 3:5b, “I will by no means erase his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” The book of life is a divine record of the names of those who partake of the blessings God has prepared for them. These blessings are in three stages: the church, the millennial kingdom, and eternity. All the believers will share in the blessings of the first and third stages, but only the overcomers will share in the blessings of the second stage, that is, the blessings in the millennial kingdom. Those who cooperate with God’s supplying grace and mature in life in the church age will be given the prize of the entrance into the millennial kingdom and the participation in the divine blessings in that stage. This means that their names will not be erased out of the book of life during the millennium. The names of all the genuine believers have been written in the book of life. However, during the millennium, the names of some, the defeated ones, will be deleted, whereas the names of the overcomers will remain in the book of life during the coming age of the millennial kingdom.
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