A Quick Review of Dane Ortlund’s Gentle and Lowly:
One of my favorite reads of the last few years. Ortlund makes Puritan writers accessible, and he focuses on the merciful heart of Christ toward all of us sinners and sufferers in a way that’s greatly refreshing to those of us burdened by legalism and/or guilt. I recommend Gentle and Lowly highly to anyone in need of spiritual encouragement.
A Small Caveat for Readers:
No, the wording of various chapters isn’t always perfect. In fact, in the author’s attempt to convey just how lavish is Christ’s love for His church, he can become imprecise in his statements. For example, Ortlund suggests that Christ’s “sweeping us into his tender embrace” is “what gets him [Jesus] out of bed in the morning.” (p. 22) Elsewhere, he displays a solid understanding of God’s character and greatness, so I assume that this was a careless phrase that somehow missed Ortlund’s editorial filter.
Despite this minor disagreement, the book is still a favorite! The central theme of Christ’s gentleness is an excellent one for us to dwell upon, especially in a world too often focused on self instead of Christ. If we do see self, we should see the glory of what Christ is doing and has done on our unworthy selves and not cringe in fear or doubt.
I couldn’t choose just one favorite quote from the book, so here is a whole collection. I encourage you to buy the book for yourself and begin highlighting your own favorite quotes!
Favorite Quotes from Gentle and Lowly
Christ’s Heart
You don’t need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come. No payment is required; he says, “I will give you rest.”
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 20). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
“Gentle and lowly.” This, according to his own testimony, is Christ’s very heart. This is who he is. Tender. Open. Welcoming. Accommodating. Understanding. Willing. 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…This is not who he is to everyone, indiscriminately. This is who he is for those who come to him, who take his yoke upon them, who cry to him for help.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 20). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
What helium does to a balloon, Jesus’s yoke does to his followers. We are buoyed along in life by his endless gentleness and supremely accessible lowliness. He doesn’t simply meet us at our place of need; he lives in our place of need. He never tires of sweeping us into his tender embrace. It is his very heart.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 22). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
He follows that paragraph with the strange sentence about the above work getting Jesus out of bed in the morning. Hmmm…
What About His Wrath?
First, the wrath of Christ and the mercy of Christ are not at odds with one another, like a see-saw, one diminishing to the degree that the other is held up. Rather, the two rise and fall together. 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.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 28). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
And just as we can hardly fathom the divine ferocity awaiting those out of Christ, it is equally true that we can hardly fathom the divine tenderness already resting now on those in Christ.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 61). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Christ’s Kindness to Sufferers and Sinners
All our natural intuitions tell us that Jesus is with us, on our side, present and helping, when life is going well. This text says the opposite. It is in “our weaknesses” that Jesus sympathizes with us.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 42). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
…when the fallenness of the world closes in on us and makes us want to throw in the towel—there, right there, we have a Friend who knows exactly what such testing feels like, and sits close to us, embraces us. With us. Solidarity. Our tendency is to feel intuitively that the more difficult life gets, the more alone we are. As we sink further into pain, we sink further into felt isolation. The Bible corrects us. Our pain never outstrips what he himself shares in. We are never alone. That sorrow that feels so isolating, so unique, was endured by him in the past and is now shouldered by him in the present.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (pp. 43-44). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Temptation
Jesus’s sinlessness means that he knows temptation better than we ourselves do. C. S. Lewis made this point by speaking of a man walking against the wind. Once the wind of temptation gets strong enough, the man lies down, giving in—and thus not knowing what it would have been like ten minutes later. Jesus never lay down; he endured all our temptations and testings without ever giving in. He therefore knows the strength of temptation better than any of us. Only he truly knows the cost.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 61). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Christ’s Intercession
The Son’s intercession does not reflect the coolness of the Father but the sheer warmth of the Son. Christ does not intercede because the Father’s heart is tepid toward us but because the Son’s heart is so full toward us. But the Father’s own deepest delight is to say yes to the Son’s pleading on our behalf.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 71). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
One way to think of Christ’s intercession, then, is simply this: Jesus is praying for you right now. “It is a consoling thought,” wrote theologian Louis Berkhof, “that Christ is praying for us, even when we are negligent in our prayer life.” 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.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 74). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
What if We Sin?
We cannot present a reason for Christ to finally close off his heart to his own sheep. No such reason exists. Every human friend has a limit. If we offend enough, if a relationship gets damaged enough, if we betray enough times, we are cast out. The walls go up. With Christ, our sins and weaknesses are the very resumé items that qualify us to approach him. Nothing but coming to him is required—first at conversion and a thousand times thereafter until we are with him upon death.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 61). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
We are called to mature into deeper levels of personal holiness as we walk with the Lord, truer consecration, new vistas of obedience. But when we don’t—when we choose to sin—though we forsake our true identity, our Savior does not forsake us.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (pp. 80-81). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Let Jesus draw you in through the loveliness of his heart. This is a heart that upbraids the impenitent with all the harshness that is appropriate, yet embraces the penitent with more openness than we are able to feel. It is a heart that walks us into the bright meadow of the felt love of God. It is a heart that drew the despised and forsaken to his feet in self-abandoning hope. It is a heart of perfect balance and proportion, never overreacting, never excusing, never lashing out. It is a heart that throbs with desire for the destitute. It is a heart that floods the suffering with the deep solace of shared solidarity in that suffering. It is a heart that is gentle and lowly.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 86). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Taste and See that the Lord is Good…
When you look at the glorious older saints in your church, how do you think they got there? Sound doctrine, yes. Resolute obedience, without a doubt. Suffering without becoming cynical, for sure. But maybe another reason, maybe the deepest reason, is that they have, over time, been won over in their deepest affections to a gentle Savior. Perhaps they have simply tasted, over many years, the surprise of a Christ for whom their very sins draw him in rather than push him away. Maybe they have not only known that Jesus loved them but felt it.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 87). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Parenting
…at the center, our job is to show our kids that even our best love is a shadow of a greater love. To put a sharper edge on it: to make the tender heart of Christ irresistible and unforgettable. Our goal is that our kids would leave the house at eighteen and be unable to live the rest of their lives believing that their sins and sufferings repel Christ.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 99). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Mercy
That Jesus is friend to sinners is only contemptible to those who feel themselves not to be in that category.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 99). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Because mercy is who he is. If mercy was something he simply had, while his deepest nature was something different, there would be a limit on how much mercy he could dole out. But if he is essentially merciful, then for him to pour out mercy is for him to act in accord with who he is. It is simply for him to be God.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 150). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
The mercy of God reaches down and rinses clean not only obviously bad people but fraudulently good people, both of whom equally stand in need of resurrection.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 153). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
His Love is Great Even When Our Faithfulness is Small
The logic of Romans 5 is: Through his Son he drew near to us when we hated him. Will he remain distant now that we hope we can please him? He eagerly suffered for us when we were failing, as orphans. Will he cross his arms over our failures now that we are his adopted children? His heart was gentle and lowly toward us when we were lost. Will his heart be anything different toward us now that we are found?
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 168). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
…in going to the cross, Jesus did not retain something for himself, the way we tend to do when we seek to love others sacrificially. 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.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 172). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
A Final Call
So go to him. That place in your life where you feel most defeated, he is there; he lives there, right there, and his heart for you, not on the other side of it but in that darkness, is gentle and lowly.
Ortlund, Dane C.. Gentle and Lowly (p. 187). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Feel free to share some of the quotes from this post. (Or, again, go buy the book and collect your own favorites!)
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