Since I began reading Christian non-fiction books, I have stumbled upon numerous books about the atoning work of Jesus. But I have seen a precious few ones about His heart. Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortlund is one of them. It is a book that invites us into Christ’s core, and it illuminates what lies therein.
About the author
“Dane C. Ortlund (Ph.D., Wheaton College) is chief publishing officer and Bible publisher at Crossway. He serves as an editor for the Knowing the Bible series and the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series and is the author of several books, including Gentle and Lowly and Edwards on the Christian Life. He is an elder at Naperville Presbyterian Church in Naperville, Illinois.”
About the book
Gentle and Lowly is about the heart of Jesus, what naturally flows out of Him. The title comes from Jesus’ own description of His heart in Matthew 11:28-30, which says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
A. W. Tozer famously said, “what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” For many Christians, what comes to our mind when we think about Jesus is His work on the cross. We are well acquainted with His deeds but not His heart, with what moved Him to love and rescue miserable sinners and wash them clean with His blood.
Ortlund attempts to fill this gap with a treaty on the nature of Jesus, and His feelings toward us.
He says, “You might know that Christ died and rose again on your behalf to rinse you clean of all your sin; but do you know his deepest heart for you? Do you live with an awareness not only of his atoning work for your sinfulness but also of his longing heart amid your sinfulness?… It is one thing to describe what your husband says and does and looks like. It is something else, something deeper and more real, to describe his heart for you. So with Christ. It is one thing to know the doctrines of the incarnation and the atonement and a hundred other vital doctrines. It is another, more searching matter to know his heart for you.”
Ortlund wrote this book for ordinary Christians like you and me who struggle with sin and suffer from its effects. He wrote it so we may “know what the Bible says about the heart of Christ and consider the glory of His heart for our own up-and-down lives.”
Gentle and Lowly has 23 brief chapters that delve into select Scriptures, which provides us with a glimpse of Jesus’ heart. For instance, “The Happiness of Christ,” “I will never Cast Out,” “A tender Friend,” and “Rich in Mercy.”
My thoughts
Ortlund did an astounding work with this book. He thoroughly explained what Jesus meant when He said He was gentle and lowly using the original Greek language and cross-references. And he faithfully used God’s Word to expound the nature of Christ and His heart towards us. Ortlund also relied on the wisdom of the puritans like John Owens, Thomas Goodwin, John Bunyan, Richard Sibbes, and other theologians like Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards. The inputs of these seasoned saints provided more in-depth insights into the heart of Jesus.
I loved that Gentle and Lowly didn’t focus solely on the New Testament or Christ only. Ortlund included several passages from the Old Testament that described Jesus’ nature and explained how the Father and the Spirit relate to the heart of Christ.
There are several things I learned from this book that made me marvel at the beauty and magnificent heart of our Lord. For example, when Ortlund explained how God’s anger needs to be provoked, whereas His mercy is always bubbling at the surface, ready to gush out on us. I grew up terrified of God’s wrath, and falsely believed He was more prone to anger than anything else. A few years of Bible study changed that belief to equally likely to be angry and merciful. But I was still wrong. As Ortlund demonstrated, God needs only to be provoked to anger, never to love, or show mercy.
Every chapter in the book had similar precious gems of truths that warmed my soul with Jesus’ love and delighted me with the surpassing worth of knowing His heart.
My recommendation
Gentle and lowly left me in awe of Jesus and provided me with a much better understanding of His character. I highly recommend this book to everyone who follows Christ. It will bless you!
*Crossway publishers graciously gave me a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.*
Favorite quotes
You don’t need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come.
Chapter 1: His Very Heart
For lowly gentleness is not one way Jesus occasionally acts toward others. Gentleness is who he is. It is his heart. He can’t un-gentle himself toward his own any more than you or I can change our eye color.
Chapter 1: His Very Heart
The more robust one’s felt understanding of the just wrath of Christ against all that is evil both around us and within us, the more robust our felt understanding of his mercy.
Chapter 2: The happiness of Christ
It is not what life brings to us but whom we belong that determines Christ’s heart of love for us.
Chapter 6: I Will Never Cast Out
Let’s not dishonor God by so emphasizing his transcendence that we lose a sense of the emotional life of God of which our own emotions are an echo, even if a fallen and distorted echo.
Chapter 7: What Our Sins Evoke
Christ continues to intercede on our behalf in heaven because we continue to fail here on earth. He does not forgive us through his work on the cross and then hope we make it the rest of the way.
Chapter 8: To the Uttermost
Whereas the doctrine of the atonement reassures us with what Christ has done in the past, the doctrine of his intercession reassures us with that he is doing in the present.
Chapter 8: To the Uttermost
The triune God is three in one, a fountain of endless mercies extending to, meeting, and overflowingly providing for us in all our many needs and failures and wanderings.
Chapter 14: Father of Mercies
His anger requires provocation; his mercy is pent up, ready to gush forth. We tend to think: divine anger is pent up, spring-loaded; divine mercy is slow to build. It’s just the opposite. Divine mercy is ready to burst forth at the slightest prick.
Chapter 16: The Lord, the Lord
Those in Christ are eternally imprisoned within the tender heart of God. We will be less sinful in the next life than we are now, but we will not be any more secure in the next life than we are now. If you are united to Christ, you are as good as in heaven already.
Chapter 21: He Loved Us Then; He’ll Love Us Now
He does not love like us. We love until we are betrayed. Jesus continued to the cross despite betrayal. We love until we are forsaken. Jesus loved through forsakenness. We love up to a limit. Jesus loves to the end.
Chapter 22: To the End
Go to him [Jesus]. All that means is, open yourself up to him. Let him love you. The Christian life boils down to two steps: 1. Go to Jesus. 2. See #1.
Epilogue
