Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 3:5

"He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." — Revelation 3:5 (ASV)

He that overcometh.—The promise is repeated to all who overcome; all, not who have never fallen, or failed, but who conquer, will be clothed in glistening white garments. On this glistening appearance compare Dante’s words, “robed in hue of living flame,” and the description so frequent in the Pilgrim’s Progress—“the shining ones.”

Trench, who reminds us that this glistening white is found in the symbolism of pagan antiquity, says: “The glorified body, purified of all its dregs and impurities, whatever remained of those having been precipitated in death, and now transformed and transfigured into the likeness of Christ’s body (Philippians 3:21), this, with its robe, atmosphere, and effluence of lights, is itself, I believe, the white garments which Christ here promises to His redeemed.” Professor Lightfoot thinks (see his Epistle to Col. p. 22) that there may be a reference to the purple dyes for which Sardis, as well as Thyatira, was celebrated.

I will not blot out . . .—The negative is emphatic, “I will by no means blot out.” This figure of speech—a book and the blotting out—was ancient. (Psalms 69:21; Daniel 12:1; Philippians 4:3.) The name will not be erased from the roll or register of the citizens of heaven. A process of erasure is always going on, besides the process of entering.

When the soul has finally taken its choice for evil, when Christ is utterly denied on earth and trodden under foot, when the defilement of sin has become inveterate and indelible, then the pen is drawn through the guilty name, then the inverted style smears the wax over the unworthy characters; and when the owner of that name applies afterwards for admittance, the answer is, ‘I do not know you; depart from here, you willing worker and lover of iniquity’” (Dr. Vaughan).

But I will confess his name.—Another echo of Christ’s words on earth (Matthew 10:32–33; Luke 12:8–9).