Justin Tapp's Reviews> Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers

Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund

My wife and I read this like a devotional book, we read a chapter (8 pages on average) each night after which we'd discuss and pray. I recommend that approach. It served as a daily teaching or reminder that the Bible teaches that "the bent of God's heart is mercy. His glory is his goodness" (p. 147). The only things God is described as being "rich" in are mercy and kindness (Ephesians 2). "The only two words Jesus will use to describe his own heart are gentle and lowly (Matt. 11:29). And the first two words God uses to describe who he is are merciful and gracious (Exodus 34:6-7)" (ibid). This book combats our ingrained and conscious or subconscious belief that our obedience strengthens the love of God-- when that is contrary to the Gospel of grace.

Ortlund draws heavily on Thomas Goodwin and other Puritan or later Reformed writers on the topic of the depths of God's mercy. While the Bible and those same Puritans rightly wrote at length describing God's perfect justice and the measure of his wrath, Ortlund painstakingly illustrates the marvelous Gospel truth that there is rest and perfect forgiveness and no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. In the Bible, His anger requires provocation, but "not once are we told that God is 'provoked to love' or 'provoked to mercy,' as that is his natural bent toward his covenant children. God is not like us, who love conditionally and with limits." The message of this book is that we tend to project our natural expectations about who God is onto him instead of fighting to let the Bible surprise us into what God himself says...The natural flow of the fallen human heart is toward reciprocity, tit-for-tat payback... intractably law-ish. "Isaiah reminds us that his thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways are higher, and the context of that passage is about God's blessings and covenant with a wayward Israel that deserved punishment." God's thoughts are so much higher that not only does he abundantly pardon the penitent; he has determined to bring his people into a future so glorious that we can hardly bring ourselves to dare for it, "(pg. 154-161, great quote from John Calvin included)." That God is rich in mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes but homes in which divine mercy abides "(p. 179). That Jesus is friend to sinners is only contemptible to those who feel themselves not to be in that category" (p. 114).

Read the book and enjoy the rest that it offers. 4.5 stars.