Gentle and Lowly- a must read for 2022

image courtesy of crossway.org

Dane Ortlund’s Gentle and Lowly is absolutely the read that we all need in 2022 and beyond. He released it right at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, and his words are balm to the soul as we plod on in this mess of a world. I read this book as a devotional- reading a chapter or so every other week and going back to revisit passages as needed. 

The book begins with a discussion on the heart of Christ. Jesus tells us what his heart is like-his motivations and the very center of who he is- in Matthew 11:29 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. Ortlund says on page 22,

“Only as we walk ever deeper into this tender kindness can we live the Christian life as the New Testament calls us to. Only as we drink down the kindness of the heart of Christ will we leave in our wake, everywhere we go, the aroma of heaven, and die one day having startled the world with glimpses of a divine kindness too great to be boxed in by what we deserve.”

What rises up from the heart of Christ is great compassion, felt anguish at the suffering of his friends, a deep joy in giving us relief. Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses and is with us when we suffer. Ortlund then describes what happens when we find ourselves broken by sin. On page 57 he says,

“The deeper into weakness and suffering and testing we go, the deeper Christ’s solidarity with us. As we go down into pain and anguish, we are descending ever deeper into Christ’s very heart, not away from it.”

Jesus will never cast out those who come to him. This is called perseverance of the saints, but Ortlund explains it deeper- that it is actually the perseverance of Christ’s heart. Jesus delights to hold us fast in himself, and he continually intercedes for us in the heavenly places. He meets us as the father of the prodigal son goes the further distance to embrace his son. He saves to the uttermost. He is drawn to the deepest pockets of sin- those places we hide even from our own selves. 

I found the discussion in Chapter 17 His Ways Are Not Our Ways absolutely mind-blowing. On page 160 Ortlund uses Isaiah 55 to describe the chasm between God and us. “He isn’t like you. Even the most intense of human love is but the faintest echo of heaven’s cascading abundance…He intends to restore you into the radiant resplendence for which you were created. And that is dependent not on you keeping yourself clean but on you taking your mess to him.”

In Gentle and Lowly Ortlund delivers the gospel in a deep poetic way. Jesus’ grace in kindness is not a product he delivers, but it is himself. We do not need to uphold our own morality, and as Ortlund says on page 184, “He is rich in mercy. We cannot leverage Christ’s favor with our behavior.” 

So what? How do we apply this book to our lives? The answer is, we don’t. We simply take Ortlund’s encouragement and run to the heart of Jesus and spend our lives enjoying him.

“When we live to glorify God, we step into the only truly humanizing way of living." Dane Ortlund