How do Christians grow? The Bible calls us to grow in godliness and work out our salvation with fear and trembling, but how exactly do we accomplish it? Dane Ortlund seeks to answer this question in his new book Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners.
Deeper is the second entry in the Union book series, the first one being Rejoice and Tremble. In this book, Dane Ortlund, author of bestseller Gentle and Lowly, explains how sinners can grow in Christlikeness by going deeper into him.
He says, “The basic point of this book is that change is a matter of going deeper… Growing in Christ is not centrally improving or adding or experiencing, but deepening. Implicit in the notion of deepening is that you already have what you need. Christian growth is bringing what you do and say and even feel into line with what, in fact, you already are.”
Ortlund wrote this book for the weary and frustrated Christians. Those who are on the brink of despair because of the little spiritual growth in their lives.
The book is only 176 pages long, with nine chapters. Each chapter explains a theme or facet of Christ necessary to grow in Him—for instance, knowing Jesus, our union with Him, justification, and pain.
I loved the book’s focus on looking unto Christ for growth and the new insights it provides on the process of sanctification. I particularly enjoyed Ortlund’s treatment of justification and its significance on our spiritual growth.
One thing I didn’t like about this book is that it was not very practical, especially for a book about real change. Unlike many books on spiritual growth, Deeper doesn’t write much about habits we can implement daily, and the book is much more theoretical than practical. Upon reading the chapters, I wasn’t sure how to apply all this knowledge into my daily life. I wish Ortlund gave a framework or guidance to apply these truths so we can grow. Scripture calls us to be hearers and doers, but this book didn’t address the doing part much.
The other thing that I slightly disliked about the book is its overly mushy tone. It has a lot of fuzzy, heartwarming, vague language that is not helpful.
At any rate, Deeper is interesting and mentions excellent teachings about sanctification that all Christians should know. And for that, I recommend it. But as a Christian struggling with her spiritual growth, I didn’t find it as helpful as I hoped.
Crossway publishers graciously gave me a copy for an honest review.
