Book review by John Pearson — 
This is a book you’ll want to read twice, at least. Running on fumes? Running up the down escalator? Stop… and bask in the heart of Christ.
I read this book twice. It’s a holy ground page-turner with dozens of PowerPoint-worthy quotes.
Dane Ortlund asks us, “Who do you think God is—not just on paper but in the kind of person you believe is hearing you when you pray?” He writes that God is “…not yearning for the Facebook you, the you that you project to everyone around you. Not the you that you wish you were.” God is “yearning for the real you. The you underneath everything you present to others.” This might be the most important book you’ll read this year.
Dane Ortlund believes “we have a perverse resistance” to the heart of God. “Out of his heart flows mercy; out of ours, reluctance to receive it. We are the cool and calculating ones, not he. He is open-armed. We stiff-arm. Our naturally decaffeinated views of God’s heart might feel right because we’re being stern with ourselves, not letting ourselves off the hook too easily. Such sternness feels appropriately morally serious.”
But that’s not what the Bible says. Slowly, thoughtfully—and with that rare writer’s gift that compels you to turn the page—Dane Ortlund offers newcomers and old timers a fresh view of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The author insists: “God’s heart confounds our intuitions of who he is.”
When you read this book—there’s one person you should thank: Paul Lewis. He sent me a copy of Gentle and Lowly. (And not just the hardback. He sent the Imitation Leather Special Edition.) Normally, I underline—and make a mess of—every book I read. Not this one! After two paragraphs, I sensed I was on holy ground. I put my pen away—and read and prayed. Slowly. I listened. Oh, my. The author begins:
“This book is written for the discouraged, the frustrated, the weary, the disenchanted, the cynical, the empty. Those running on fumes. Those whose Christian lives feel like constantly running up a descending escalator.”
Ever wonder if “God’s patience with us is wearing thin” and more? Maybe we love God, “but suspect we have deeply disappointed him.” This book, writes Ortlund, is “for normal Christians. In short, it is for sinners and sufferers.”
As I journeyed through the 23 short chapters, I found wisdom from the prophets, the apostles, and a few Puritans. Ortlund simply asks us to “open ourselves up to what they tell us about the heart of God and the heart of Christ. The central question is: Who is he?”
I thanked Paul Lewis for his gift, but I also thanked another Paul. My friend since college days, Paul Fleischmann, invited me to his “6th Annual Men’s Summer Study Group” in San Diego. This week they just wrapped up eight Tuesday mornings and read—you guessed it—Gentle and Lowly. I stopped by on July 22—and recruited some book testimonials. (See below. My motto: never miss a chance to delegate your work!)
The big idea in Gentle and Lowly? Dane Ortlund writes, “My Dad pointed out to me something that Charles Spurgeon pointed out to him. In the four Gospel accounts given to us in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—eighty-nine chapters of biblical text—there’s only one place where Jesus tells us about his own heart.” See Matthew 11:28-30:
“Come to me, all 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.”
Did I mention? I love Ortlund’s writing style. And by the way, I’ll likely review this book a second time with a series of questions the author has sprinkled throughout the book. Here’s an example for Pop Quiz Question #1 (with the answer): Ortlund asks, “If we are asked to say only one thing about who Jesus is, we would be honoring Jesus’s own teaching if our answer is gentle and lowly.”
And LOL! Ortlund adds that if Jesus hosted his own personal website, the most prominent line of the “About Me” dropdown menu would read:
“GENTLE AND LOWLY IN HEART.”
After slowly savoring the 23 chapters of this very special book, over several weeks, I felt compelled to buy the hardback edition and read it again: one chapter a day. With a pen! (And no page escaped my underlining. Honest.)
Favorite chapters? All superb—but I especially appreciated seeing Christ’s heart from these chapters:
CHAPTER 8: TO THE UTTERMOST. “Picture a glider, pulled up into the sky by an airplane, soon to be released to float down to earth. We are that glider; Christ is the plane. But he never disengages. He never lets go, wishing us well, hoping we can glide the rest of the way into heaven. He carries us all the way.”
Ortlund quotes theologian Louis Berkhof: “It is a consoling thought that Christ is praying for us, even when we are negligent in our prayer life.” Ortlund adds, “Our prayer life stinks most of the time. But what if you heard Jesus praying aloud for you in the next room? Few things would calm us more deeply.”
CHAPTER 19: RICH IN MERCY. You’ll need to read this chapter for the context, but let me tease you with this: “The only way to make sense of these two kinds of passages is to understand that we can vent our fleshly passions by breaking all the rules, or we can vent our fleshly passions by keeping all the rules, but both ways of venting the flesh still need resurrection. We can be immoral dead people, or we can be moral dead people. Either way, we’re dead.”
After reading this chapter on mercy, I listened to Gordon Mote sing “Mercy Walked In.”
CHAPTER 23: BURIED IN HIS HEART FOREVER. With thanks to another Paul, I’m blessed by this picture in Ephesians 2:7, “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” And this: Ortlund pokes at “those of us who have been pretty squeaky clean.” Yet on Heaven’s side—he says we’ll be astonished to discover “how deeply sin and self-righteousness and pride and all kinds of willful subconscious rebellions were way down deep inside us” and which—get this—“sends God’s grace in kindness soaring.”
Add this to your next PowerPoint: “If his grace in kindness is ‘immeasurable riches’—as opposed to measurable, middle-class grace—then our sins can never exhaust his heart. On the contrary, the more weakness and failure, the more his heart goes out to his own.” Whew. (Sing along.)
I hope you’ll read this book. In the two-page Epilogue, Ortlund says that asking, “’How do I apply this to my life?’ would be a trivialization of the point of this study. If an Eskimo wins a vacation to a sunny place, he doesn’t arrive in his hotel room, step out on the balcony, and wonder how to apply that to his life. He just enjoys it. He just basks.”
Blessings to you—as you bask.
OPTION #1: To order the hardback from Amazon, click on the title for Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, by Dane Ortlund.
OPTION #2: To order the “Imitation Leather Special Edition” from Amazon, click here.
OPTION #3: To order the “condensed version” from Amazon, click on the title for The Heart of Jesus: How He Really Feels about You, by Dane Ortlund. NOTE: In 2024, the author wrote The Heart of Jesus, a “condensed version” (128 pages) of Gentle and Lowly. “Written for a wide audience―including younger readers, new Christians, and anyone who struggles with reading―it features easy-to-read terms and helpful explanations. The chapters are also short enough to read at bedtime, around the dinner table, or during lunchtime.”
Have you ever read the prayers of the Puritans? Dane Ortlund has his favorites. For more, read and listen to selected prayers from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, by Arthur Bennett (Editor).
