Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund (Review)
I have come across a number of references to Dane Orlund’s, Gentle and Lowly. As Ortlund describes in the introduction, his focus is to better understand Jesus—who he is and what is his nature. Ortlund goes on to describe his target audience: “the discouraged, the frustrated, the weary, the disenchanted, the cynical, the empty.” On any given day, any of those feelings can be just below the surface, and Ortlund gracefully describes how Jesus meets us when we are at our worst.
An essential point that Ortlund emphasizes is that it is not possible to over-celebrate Christ’s gentleness and holiness—his compassion is unchanging. Ortlund repeatedly comes back to Matthew 11:29 where Jesus says explicitly, “I am gentle and humble in heart.” Further, he explores all the other places in the Bible where this message repeats. He notes that Jesus is not distressed when we come to him in our need. He wants us to draw near to His grace and mercy because it’s who he is. He clears away barriers to a relationship with God.
Ortlund also emphasizes Christ’s intercession on our behalf—something that happens daily as a reflection of the heart of Jesus and his passion for us. Justification is too often presented as something that already happened for believers, yet such a framework minimizes how Jesus works on our behalf to connect our hearts to God’s heart. In looking at the way Christ’s forgiveness is “to the uttermost,” Ortlund explores how the divine son turns the father’s eyes to Christ’s righteousness and away from our failings (2 Corinthians 5).
There was a long excerpt from John Bunyan who explains the difference between intermediary and advocate as it relates to Jesus: “Christ, as Priest, goes before, and Christ, as an Advocate, comes after. Christ, as Priest, continually intercedes; Christ, as Advocate, in case of great transgressions, pleads. Christ, as Priest, has need to act always, but Christ, as Advocate, sometimes only.” It is far too easy to think about Christ in the past tense and the future tense while overlooking the present. Ortlund looks at why it is important to think about Jesus in this moment. Relatedly, I hadn’t thought about Jesus maintaining his humanity after ascension.
In addition to looking at the heart of Christ, Ortlund explores how it is the same heart of God. He noted that if it was only God’s power that characterized Him, we would be awed but not drawn to Him. It is God’s loveliness that draws us to him for his heart is also gentle and lowly. Too often, the church presents God as angry and distant. Yet we know that Jesus and God are one. As 1 Corinthians 1:3-4 states, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction…” Jesus is the tangible representation of God. Where we see Christ’s gentleness and tenderness, we see God’s gentleness and tenderness.
One last point that stuck with me was Ortlund’s analysis of Isaiah 55:8. When God says that “my ways are not your ways,” he is saying that we—as humans—cannot conceive of the abundance of his mercy and goodness. His way is infinitely as high as the heavens—grander than we can conceive, which means we too easily underestimate God’s compassion for us.
As you might expect for a book written to the frustrated and weary, Ortlund’s Gentle and Lowly is an encouraging book that helped me better understand who Jesus is and how he described himself throughout the Bible. Gentle and Lowly is a short book and an accessible one, but the theology is rich and worthwhile. I give Ortlund’s book a full endorsement without reservation.
