Isaiah 4:3
And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
Those left in Zion and remaining in Jerusalem are the faithful remnant who survive judgment and purification and are preserved for restoration, with their tears and humiliation giving way to joy and honor in the presence of God and the Lamb as the complete fulfillment of the promise of Christ the Branch. To be written among the living in Jerusalem is to be individually registered and still enrolled among the living there, with names remaining in the book of life in eternal security. To be called holy is to be cleansed, pardoned, and accepted by God, divested of self-righteousness and arrayed in Christ's righteousness without spot or wrinkle, stain or guile. This is completely fulfilled after the investigative judgment closes and before the second coming of Christ, as the fulfillment of the new-covenant promise of forgiveness.
When Christ finishes pleading for His penitent, believing people, He does not excuse their sins but shows their penitence and faith, claims forgiveness for them by His wounded hands and blood, rebukes Satan as accuser, and clothes them with His own righteousness to present them worthy to live and walk with Him in white. Their iniquity is forgiven and remembered no more, so that when it is sought none is found. Having endured temptation and the corruptions of the world, the remnant are honored in the presence of God and the Lamb, standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion bearing God's seal.
The preservation of a people from Jerusalem's destruction is only a faint shadow of deliverance at the final judgment on a world that has rejected mercy and trampled law, when the restraining Spirit is wholly withdrawn and human passion and satanic wrath break out. Being written among the living then means belonging to the faithful whom Christ gathers to Himself at His second coming in the clouds with power and great glory by angels with a trumpet from the four winds. Those who obey not the gospel destroy themselves by iniquity and are consumed by the spirit of His mouth and the brightness of His coming, because lives of sin have put them out of harmony with God and made His glory a consuming fire to them. In the time when Satan works deceiving miracles and sets up his supreme power, the church may appear about to fall but does not fall and remains, while the sinners in Zion are sifted out and the chaff is separated from the precious wheat in a terrible ordeal.
Only those overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony are found with the loyal and true, purifying their souls by obeying the truth, gathering strength from the trying process, exhibiting the beauty of holiness amid surrounding apostasy, and held in everlasting imperishable remembrance. Those left and remaining are the church as the bride, the Lamb's wife, called holy because she keeps herself pure, sanctified, and free from all foolishness as befits the bride of a King. She does not yet realize her exalted position, but when she understands it she is all-glorious within, and the Lord is ready to do a great work for her. Those who have named the name of Christ join this holy remnant by yielding as clay in the potter's hands to be molded into vessels of honor, thus qualified to stand in their lot and place and by unselfish lives to give the world an example of practical Christianity so the world is left without excuse.