How many Christians lack the sense of reality in their spiritual lives? If the resurrection was the climax of God’s rescue plan, how should life look now? Why does life seem so normal, so boring? In his book One, Clive Bowsher writes, “Many of us, in all honesty, are longing to discover, recover, or simply encounter more of the reality and closeness of God” (12).
Clive Bowsher is provost of Union School of Theology in Wales, where he teaches and researches in New Testament and biblical theology.
Bowsher looks at nine things Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John, and mostly in John 14–17, about our life in him. Life in Christ affects our love, worship, obedience, nearness and intimacy, purpose, life, freedom, and prayer, and eternal life (or “heaven”). Bowsher doesn’t want us to merely know God intellectually. He wants us to experience the richness of our relationship with God that we get to experience through Christ.
Bowsher wants us to see that God is not cold and distant, like the deistic god, nor is he wrathful and angry at us Christians. Jesus is one with the Father, and what we see Jesus doing we see the Father doing in him. Not only that, but when we put our faith and trust in Christ, we are one with Jesus too. His Father becomes our Father. Bowsher writes, “But knowing God isn’t a hard problem for us to solve. It’s a dazzling and thrilling reality to dive into” (24). In fact, when we are in Christ, Bowsher points out that “you can’t be united to Jesus without actually being in a relationship where you both love each other” (29).
Recommended?
Throughout his book Bowsher is honest about his own trials, about how many Christians typically worry about their faith and God’s love for them, and he carefully brings us back to the Gospel and Jesus’ heart for us. God actually wants us to know him. It is a relationship that “makes alive” those who are in it, and God has saved us to make us alive in him. Bowsher’s book is a great resource for those struggling to feel like their relationship with Christ is alive and who want to understand how union with Christ practically looks in day-to-day life.
Pair this with Sam Allberry’s One With My Lord and Paul Miller’s J-Curve. For more academic treatments see Clive Bowsher’s Life in the Son and Constantine Campbell’s Paul and Union with Christ.
Buy it on Amazon or from Union Publishing!
Lagniappe
- Author: Clive Bowsher
- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Union Publishing (November 2023)
- Read: The introduction and chapter one here
Review Disclosure: I received this book free from Union Publishing. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html.
Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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