If we wanted to read a script about what Jesus did, we would have many options available to us. But if we wanted to read a script about who Jesus is, well, the options would be far fewer. obviously the two studies are close connected, for what Jesus did is inexorably tied to who he is. Yet the two studies are not identical, for his kernel can ’ triiodothyronine be conflated with his actions .
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so who is Jesus ? If we carefully separate his person from his actions, what will we find ? This is the question at the center of Dane Ortlund ’ s Gentle and Lowly : The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers. “ This is a book about the heart of Christ. Who is he ? Who is he very ? What is most lifelike to him ? What ignites within him most immediately as he moves toward sinners and sufferers ? What flows out most freely, most instinctively ? Who is he ? ” A study like this could easily be framed around abstract qualities of character, possibly like some of those studies on the attributes of God that somehow seem to reduce the live God to a dry, bulleted list of characteristics. But Ortlund ’ randomness treatment is far better than that. He hasn ’ thyroxine written his book for theologians equally a lot as for
Reading: Gentle and Lowly | Tim Challies
the demoralized, the torment, the tire, the disenchanted, the cynical, the empty. Those running on fumes. Those whose christian lives feel like constantly running up a condescend escalator. Those of us who find ourselves thinking : ‘ How could I mess up that bad—again ? ’ It is for that increasing suspicion that God ’ s patience with us is wearing thin. For those of us who know God loves us but suspect we have profoundly defeated him. We have told others of the sleep together of Christ so far wonder if—as for us—he harbors mild resentment. Who wonder if we have shipwrecked our lives beyond what can be repaired. Who are convinced we ’ ve permanently diminished our utility to the Lord. Who have been swept off our feet by perplexing pain and are wondering how we can keep living under such numbing darkness. Who look at our lives and know how to interpret the data merely by concluding that God is basically parsimonious.
That ’ s all to say, of path, that it ’ s written for average Christians like you and me, for people who sin and who suffer. In the aftermath of our sin and in the grief of our suffering, who is Jesus correct then and right there ? How does he act toward us ? What does he think about us ? Though books asking and answering questions like these are quite rare today, they were once widespread, specially during the era of the Puritans. For this cause, Ortlund leans on the work of Puritan authors like Thomas Goodwin, Richard Sibbes, and John Bunyan, though he besides relies on some slenderly more contemporary authors like Charles Spurgeon and B.B. Warfield. And, of course, he relies most heavily on the Bible.
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Through 23 curtly chapters—chapters that can well be read in a sitting, and chapters that are a suited to out-loud reading as silent reading—he shows us the heart of Christ. He begins with Jesus ’ s own self-description : “ I am docile and humble in kernel ” ( Matthew 11:28-30 ). The heart of Jesus is meek and humble and therefore he is kind and accessible and both will and able to help those who need him. Those who qualify for his attention are not those who are cleaned up and put together, but those who are aweary and heavily burdened. To these he makes the sweetness promise of pillow. “ If we are asked to say only one thing about who Jesus is, we would be honoring Jesus ’ s own education if our answer is, pacify and humble. ”
But Jesus is army for the liberation of rwanda more than that. Jesus is happy and sympathetic. He treats us with gradualness and promises never to give up on us. He is an preach for us and a attached ally. He is rich in mercy and tender in his affections and ageless in his love. He is all this and so much more. All the great things he has done for sinners like us flow out of the very center of who he is. To know him is to love him .
Gentle and Lowly is a sweetness and comforting book that will grow your cognition, provoke your idolize, and inspire your idolatry. Best of all, it will help you to know, love, and trust our God and Savior, Jesus Christ .
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