It’s always a good sign when a book makes you miss your stop on the tube. One is that kind of book; it draws you in and forces you to consider just how good the gospel really is.
On the surface, One is a book about union with Christ (a doctrine Clive Bowsher has already carefully traced in a more technical book, Life in the Son). But that would be to do this little book a disservice. One is a readable introduction to an infinitely deep subject. In eight chapters it traces the idea of becoming one with Christ through eight different things that Christ does, inviting the reader to know him better.
Bowsher opens with an invitation, that “it’s possible to see a love which will awaken your love in return. It’s possible to encounter Someone who will love you into life.” Christians know this, but it’s often a knowledge that remains in our heads – this book invites us to lean in and go deeper. This is a practical book about moving closer to Jesus, showing us how from the Gospel of John and the life of Christ.
This isn’t an introspective, individualistic book, though. Echoing the ‘vine’ language that permeates John’s Gospel, Bowsher is keen to remind us that our relationship with Christ extends to and incorporates our relationships with others: “The vine’s a community with a love so strong that the world comes to see Jesus and understand the Father’s love…That’s beautiful.”
Grab a copy of this wonderfully readable short book, and ask Jesus to give you an open mind and an open heart as you read it. It’s a beautiful reminder of the radical, shocking, world-upending truth of the gospel, and it will do you the world of good to read it.
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