Gentle and Lowly - by Dane Ortland
Next up in our summer book reviews series, Alan Down, reviews ‘Gentle and Lowly’
Gentle and Lowly was originally brought to my attention by my wife Gilly who had been recommended it by the Biblical Counselling UK organisation. I read it a couple of years ago but re-read it recently on the recommendation of a Pastor friend of mine from a previous church.
It impacted me on first read but more so recently. How could I find a book about Jesus’ heart – gentle and lowly - quite so breathtaking and challenging and yet thoroughly relieving? Breathtaking in its insightfulness of our own ways and thinking and completely disarming as it illuminates the immensity of Jesus’ tender love for us.
The sub-title to the book is ‘The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers’ and in the book,Dane Ortlund recognises how impoverished we often are as believers in understanding the strength of love and grace Christ has for us - the same love and grace demonstrated by the Father and Holy Spirit. By nature, he argues, we tend to wholly underestimate the heart of love that God has for us, the redeemed, as sinners and sufferers – sinners weighed down or scarred by repeated sin or sufferers through our own folly and bad choices or through terrible life circumstances.
Dane draws on Scripture, both Old and New Testament, to convince us of who Christ is – his heart, not what he has done but who he is (both important and interdependent but distinct). Although careful to stick to the biblical text he also calls on gifted and insightful teachers from the Puritan stable and era such as Goodwin, Sibbes, Jonathan Edwards and Bunyan - regarding these more as channels to provide clarity and insight to the Scriptures rather than sources.
So… central is Matthew 11 v29 I am gentle and lowly in heart, but the book looks at many facets of Jesus’ heart through Scripture; looking at his own ministry and suffering on earth and his continuing ministry to us in heaven. Exodus 34 v6 & 7 also features as a central revelation of the nature of God to his people. “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.“
Some chapters illumine how Christ’s nature is shown by his encounters - what gives him joy, provokes compassion or responds to sin and failure - while others describe his heart to us through his eternal roles as Priest and Advocate for us before God.
In the introduction Dane describes those the book is aimed at and includes, amongst others, those ‘who have been swept off their feet by perplexing pain and wondering how they can keep living under such numbing darkness’ or those who wonder if they have shipwrecked their lives beyond what can be repaired’ or ‘convinced they have permanently diminished their usefulness to the Lord’.
This book draws the sorrowful, repentant or hurting ‘you’ back into a renewed trust and faith in a merciful, kind and humble Saviour not based on our natural expectations but on a thoroughly biblical representation on who he is.
It provides great hope and nourishment for the soul, and I would personally recommend it to anyone who is despairing or has stumbled away from an active, joyful faith and fellowship - whether through difficult circumstances or carelessness or weariness.
One commentator (Paul Tripp) deftly described his experience thus: “As if I was listening to a great symphony, I was moved in different ways in different passages but left each feeling hugely blessed to know that what was being described was the heart of my Saviour, my Lord, my Friend and my Redeemer.”
This book is available on our online bookstall - you can find the link below:
