July Book Club | Gentle and Lowly
"Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30
July was the second time this year I've read Gentle and Lowly and this re-read came at such a good time for me. The way Dane Ortlund dives into the heart of Christ (and uses so many amazing quotes from Puritan writers, especially Thomas Goodwin) is truly remarkable and helped me to see Jesus in a way I haven't been able to see him before reading this book. I wanted to share three quick things I loved about it, and I'd love if you'd comment on this blog post and share what you enjoyed so that we can all learn from each other!
"The point in saying that Jesus is lowly is that he is accessible. For all his resplendent glory and dazzling holiness, his supreme uniqueness and otherness, no on in human history has ever been more approachable than Jesus Christ... You don't need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come..." (pg. 20)
The fact that Jesus is accessible to me, that I can come dirty, worn out, and exhausted with my burdens in hand right to the heart of Christ is a reminder my heart desperately needs to hear. As a good southern Christian who grew up being mostly concerned of my morality and my "goodness", this is a reminder I'll probably need to hear until Jesus comes back. I don't have to collect myself to come to Jesus, I don't need to be "good" to come to Jesus. I just need to come to Jesus.
"If you are part of Christ's own body, your sins evoke his deepest heart, his compassion and pity. He "takes part with you"- that is, he's on your side. He sides with you against your sin, not against you because of your sin. He hates sin. But he loves you. We understand this, Goodwin says, when we consider the hatred a father has against a terrible disease afflicting his child- the father hates the disease while loving the child. Indeed at some level the presence of the disease draws out his heart to his child all the more." (pg.71)
I love how he often uses examples of parents and children when talking about how Christ cares for us, because it's easier for my mind to comprehend. (But still hard for my heart to comprehend!) The fact that my sin evokes Christ's deepest compassion is wild to me. Like I love my children and would hate any sickness that enters their bodies, so Christ loves me and hates the sin. This should give me great boldness to come to him in my sin, to repent, because I know his heart is filled with compassion for me.
"Christ was sent not to mend wounded people or wake sleepy people or advise confused people or inspire bored people or spur on lazy people or educate ignorant people, but to raise dead people... our sins are less like an otherwise healthy man occasionally tripping up and more like a man who is disease-ridden from head to foot...We can be immoral dead people, or we can be moral dead people. Either way, we're dead. 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. God is rich is mercy. He doesn't withhold mercy from some kinds of sinners while extending it to others. Because mercy is who he is- "being rich in mercy"- his heart gushes forth mercy to sinners one and all."
God is rich in mercy. God is rich in mercy. Without him, I'm not just "bad", I'm dead. I have no life. Moral or immortal, my sin separates me from God. But God is rich in mercy and saves sinners like me. Praise the Lord.
There are a million more things we could hit on in this book, but these were just a few of my favorites. I'd love to know something you're taking away from the book so leave a comment and share!
Just a reminder, we've already started our August book! Pick up Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy and read along with me this month.
