Salvation

Union with Christ in John’s Gospel and letters is the in-one-another relationship of believers with the Father and Son by the Spirit—the intimate, loving, relational participation of the believer and God, each in the life, affections, ways and work of the other.

The following 15 quotes are from Clive Bowsher’s new title Life in the Son: Exploring participation and union with Christ in John’s Gospel and letters.

God is our Shepherd. This truth is not for mere intellectual assent, nor a kind of badge to hang on our own board of orthodoxy. To know the one who is Shepherd is a precious reality from which the believer draws strength, comfort, and life.

What is the most urgent need of the church today? Better leadership? Better training? Healthier giving? Orthodoxy? Moral integrity? Each of these are undoubtedly needs, but underneath them all lies something even more vital: gospel integrity.

When we see the radiance of the sun, we meet warmth, and light, and life. Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God. A God who does not need to take from us, but loves to give and give himself.

Dear ones, you are promised so much in this life, but freedom from suffering is not one (Phil. 1:29). Where will you turn when the high tide of illness, injustice, persecution, poverty, or any other kind of evil or unease brings you to an abrupt stop? Let this be an encouragement to warm your souls afresh at the white-hot flame of the Trinitarian love of God. Enough to turn your eyes from the pressures, performance, pain, and problems of this world, is he who wins us again and again by his heavenly kindness. It is this God who desires to be known in Christ and experienced within the deepest recesses of our souls. So it was for the Apostle Paul, and so it is for all of God’s dearly beloved children.

Mission is no clunky add-on to your own delighting in God. Instead, it is the natural overflow and expression of the enjoyment you have of him so that, like him, you gladly go out to fill the world with the word of his goodness.

As we head towards another Christmas, let’s be sure to ponder the wonder of that first Christmas and the daily wonder of a God who moved toward us in such a stunning way!

Without understanding justification, we would assume God was all sternness, one who simply approves those who have already sorted themselves out. Such a God might be right to be like that, but he would hardly win our hearts.

Yes, the Father has eternally loved his only begotten Son. But what makes the gospel such good news for us is that the Father has graced us with every spiritual blessing—chief of which is our adoption as sons to himself—“in the Beloved” (1:7). The gospel transforms obedience.