Ortlund's book Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers came out this year, and it was well timed for the year we've had. This isn't another book where the author relies on his own ideas of what God ought to be like. Ortlund shows from scripture how Jesus really feels about his people: "What keeps [Christ] from growing cold [toward us]? The answer is, his heart. The atoning work of the Son, decreed by the Father and applied by the Spirit, ensures that we are safe eternally. But a text such as John 6:37 reassures us that this is not only a matter of divine decree but divine desire. This is heaven's delight."
Do you wonder if Christ is put out with you when you come to him with yet more sins? "When you come to Christ for mercy and love and help in your anguish and perplexity and sinfulness, you are going with the flow of his own deepest wishes, not against them."
In something that may surprise those who only them by our society's caricature, Ortlund also draws from Puritan writers of the past to show how thoroughly Jesus loves his people. A passage from Thomas Goodwin says:
"Christ takes part with you, and is so far from being provoked against you, as all his anger is turned upon your sin to ruin it; yes, his pity is increased the more towards you, even as the heart of a father is to a child that has some loathsome disease, or as one is to a member of his body that has leprosy, he hates not the member, for it is his flesh, but the disease, and that provokes him to pity the part affected the more."
He wants you to know that God's love will never leave his children. "Nothing can un-child you. Not even you. Those in Christ are eternally imprisoned within the tender heart of God. We will be less sinful in the next life than we are now, but we will not be any more secure in the next life than we are now. If you are united to Christ, you are as good as in heaven already."
In 23 short chapters, you will be reminded that Christ is our advocate, that wrath is not God's default mood, and that his glory is his goodness. You will see "his deepest heart for his people, weary and faltering on their journey toward heaven."
I may be an oddball, but when I want to reflect on the love of God, I generally turn to the Psalms, the prophets, or the epistles rather than the gospels. It's easy for me to get more caught up in the storyline, the rules, or the clashes with the Pharisees when I read the gospels. It was wonderful to me to have someone take me there and make me see the love of Jesus again.
Who is this book for? It's for anyone who wonders if God is tired of them. It's for anyone who wonders if Jesus was just doing what he was told. It's for people who need to be reminded that their Savior loves them like a cherished child rather than a misbehaving pet or a distant friend. In short, everyone at some time in their life could use to hear these things.
No book is solid gold, but I highlighted an awful lot of this. Crossway was giving the electronic version away for free during the spring. About halfway through I bought a hardcopy. This is one I'll be re-reading. And re-reading. I really cannot recommend it highly enough. You will not be disappointed by this book.
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