Granted, he credits many other teachers, primarily Thomas Goodwin.
There are many other things I could share that blew me away from Gentle and Lowly, but that is a good sampling of the kinds of teachings Ortlund gifted the church with. But the nuance of how this is not something God does from his heart nearly caused me to break down and weep as I read. Isaiah 45:7 teaches this, as well as a whole host of other passages. Any preacher who preaches the whole counsel of God knows that God afflicts.
I needed this for a fuller and more complete understanding of salvation.Īnd finally, the explanation in Chapter 15 of Lamentations 3:33 of God not afflicting us “from his heart” was mind-blowing. No, Hebrews makes it clear Christ continues, both to the present and future, to connect us to God “to the uttermost”. But have I ever thanked God that Jesus is still interceding for me at present? The ministry of Jesus is not merely about finished work in the past, as crucial as Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday are. I always, every day, thank God for the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ. I had no idea how poorly I lived this until COVID happened and people abandoned the church.Ī third startling truth that has changed how I think and how I pray is in Chapters 8-9. I often do not live as though I want Hebrews 5:2 to be true. They are not mild terms for sin and Ortlund goes back to Numbers 15 to help the reader understand.Įven though Luke 15 clearly gives us a picture of this, my own “older brother” self-righteousness dominates my view of harsher sins and prodigal children coming back to God. Secondly, I very much needed the explanation in Chapter 5 about Jesus dealing gently with the “ignorant and wayward”. The biblical support Ortlund gives is thorough and beautiful. The cumulative testimony of the four Gospels is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness of the world around him, his deepest impulse, his most natural instinct, is to move toward that sin and suffering, not away from it.” And then he delves into Leviticus to explain why, with Jesus being God, this is more significant than our modern ears tend to comprehend. I especially like this, from chapter two: “This is deeper than saying Jesus is loving or merciful or gracious. This is the thesis of Gentle and Lowly, using Matthew 11:28-29 as a primary text, and Ortlund nails it from the opening. This book shattered my unbiblical pretenses about these things.įirst, I deeply appreciate the truth that compassion, mercy, and grace are not simply things that Christ showed while on earth, but things that flowed from his very heart. And when I fail, I am worthless and unworthy to come before God, even through Jesus Christ. I unashamedly confess that I often think and live in Galatians 3:3 as though I am saved by grace but sustained by good works. Seeing as how edifying and marvelously written Gentle and Lowly is, this will be the biggest section. And there is a final major point in this book I disagree with and will never teach. There is one thing I will teach from this book more cautiously, like a yellow light. There are truths that Gentle and Lowly expounds that I plan to teach strongly and frequently. I’m going to divide this review into three sections, with parallels to a traffic light.