How do you follow up a popular book that is being read by many churches?
That is an intimidating thing to think about. I imagine this book was already in the books, but Dane Ortlund followed Gentle and Lowly with Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners.
Orlund continues to write books for those Christians who struggle with sin. The first focused on Christ’s heart for them so their attitude toward Him will change. This focuses on how Christ changes us so we become more like Him. As such, these books should likely be read in series and proper order.
This book is part of the Union series put out by Crossway. It is the second volume after Michael Reeves’ Rejoice and Tremble on the fear of God. Each book has a highly edited version for lay people. Yes, they will find the bigger volumes understandable. But many are not readers and the shorter volumes What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord? and How Does God Change Us? can be read quickly and easily.
The title of the shorter volume communicates the commitment to sanctification as a work of God. This doesn’t mean we are passive, but it is by grace not by “trying harder”. “Christian growth is bringing what you do and say and even feel into line with what, in fact, you already are.” Just as his previous book was for the discouraged and fearful, this is for the frustrated and exhausted.
The gentle and lowly Savior is patient with us and we need to have a similar patience with ourselves and one another. “We are complicated sinners. … We need time. Be patient with yourself. A sense of urgency, yes; but not a sense of hurry. … Slow change is still real change. And it’s the normal way God deals with us.”
I couldn’t say it better. This is particularly true with deep and profound sin. Some sin is more stubborn than others- life defining, altering and twisting. Change happens, but it is often quite slow. It is like climate change, not the weather.
In debates about the pace of sanctification for those with same sex attraction I do affirm change: real change. I don’t proclaim complete change until glorification. Yes, mortify the flesh. Yes, make use of the means of grace. Yes! The power of this sin will diminish. Yes! But it may never disappear completely in this life. And this is true of other life-dominating sins as well.
Patience is important (and Paul speaks of this in 1 Thessalonians 5 and 1 Timothy 1 among other places) because “one of the devil’s great victories is to flood our hearts with a sense of futility.” Demands for quicker change by friends and family (and pastors) can feed this sense of futility as well. Ortlund his writing as a pastor and not just a theologian. He wants sound theology, but is seeking to apply it to people: real people.
Ortlund is indebted to the giants who have gone before us. There is not much that is novel here. He provides numerous quotes from others. He breaks them down and “puts the cookies on the counter” so we can enjoy them. He also points us to many passages of Scripture. He would have a confessionalist, not a biblicist, approach as he weaves the Scripture with our heritage rather than one or the other. The heritage sheds light on the Scripture.
But the book.
Ortlund starts with Jesus precisely because we are saved by Christ to become like Christ. We grow in Christ (another chapter) not by our own effort. Jesus changes real sinners. These would be the people who realize they are profoundly sinful, not simply people who mess up once in a while. We must have an orthodox view of Christ, and not a domesticated view of Christ.
The purpose is not an exhaustive theology of Jesus. He does discuss that Jesus is unsearchable or incomprehensible, that Jesus rules as the highest authority in creation (and over it). He saves sinners and befriends them. He invites us into His confidence, particularly as the Spirit illuminates the Word for us. Jesus perseveres with vacillating human beings. We are the weak link in the relationship, but He is steadfast and isn’t looking for an out. Part of His steadfast nature is revealed in interceding for us. Jesus will also return to deliver His people and judge the rest.
“”Gently Jesus,” my elbow! The most striking thing about Our Lord is the union of great ferocity with extreme tenderness.” C.S. Lewis
Despair
Ortlund’s pastoral heart is most revealed in the second chapter. Most books on sanctification ignore the reality of despair. Despairing of change seems to be a very common experience for Christians. It is not only common, but necessary so we no longer rely upon ourselves but upon Christ alone.
We take steps forward, and steps back. God dwells with the lowly. Our joy in Christ comes as we despair of self and the world. It is the humble who are exalted. So part of God’s plan is to humble us by showing us how powerless and wicked we are.
So Ortlund addresses the sinfulness of sin. Sin has turned us into glorious ruins. “We construct our entire lives around the throne of Self. … Fallen humans are factories of filth.” God shows us the depth of our sin, often through our failure to resist temptation. One of the ways we mask our sinfulness is moralism. Moralism breeds independence rather than dependence on Christ. “You cannot feel the weight of your sinfulness strongly enough.”
Sounding much like Jack Miller he speaks of repentance as turning from Self to Christ. This is the main thing that separates true repentance from worldly sorrow. On the next page he quotes Miller at length. Despair drives us to seek Christ!
Union
There is no change (or salvation) without union with Christ. It is a vital union, not simply an intellectual construct. He is the life-giving Spirit, the fountain of life. He points us to Romans 6:1-5 to explain our union.
In this chapter he discusses 3 wrong ways to view our relationship with God, and the right way to view it (God in me). It is not God working then I work, or God working while I do nothing (passivity)or me adding to God’s work. Ortlund seeks to hold both human responsibility and divine sovereignty together in examining sanctification. This happens by virtue of our union with Christ.
We are secure in Christ. Our union is unchanging (our experience of communion is, but he doesn’t stress this). Our union is both federal and personal in the macro dimension. Like Adam, Jesus is a federal head. Unlike Adam, Jesus brings life instead of condemnation. He also discusses a micro dimension, the organic union in which He shares communicable attributes. He explains that union is an umbrella doctrine: other things are true because of the reality of union. Sanctification is an increasing experience of our union with Christ.
Embrace
I summarized this by Jesus fills our emptiness with Himself in our union. Jesus is the fullness of God. We are empty due to sin. Now united to Christ we are filled. The love of God is poured into our hearts and we begin to love God (embrace Him) in return. “We grow in Christ no further than we enjoy his embrace of us.” We grasp, in increasing measure, the measureless love of God for us.
“The love of Christ is his settled, unflappable heart of affection for sinners and sufferers- and only sinners and suffers.”
He affirms the reality of judgment elsewhere, so we shouldn’t think Ortlund is a universalist or that He loves all sinners in this way. His settled heart is intended to settle our unsettled hearts. We are often unsettled by guilt and shame. Like a good parent comforts an upset child, Jesus comforts us when we experience guilt and shame.
Ortlund discusses some blockages to knowing Christ’s love. One is to look at our lives instead of His life. We have to look at the right life. We often let our suffering to define us instead of His love defining us.
Acquittal
There is no sanctification without justification. There is no sanctification without growing in your understanding of justification. We don’t simply begin with justification, but continue in justification. We grow deeper in our experience of justification. Like Ryle, Orltund distinguishes justification and sanctification.
- Justification is outside-in, and we lose it if we make it inside-out.
- Sanctification is inside-out, and we lose it if we make it outside-in.
- And this inside-out sanctification is largely fed by daily appropriation of this outside-in justification.
He also warns of the danger of externalizing sanctification with rules. There is no power in rules. We are also in regularly in danger of judging our justification by our sanctification. This is the flesh’s approach to salvation. Our sanctification rests upon our justification.
At the end of the chapter he provides three portraits in Martin Luther, C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer. Luther tried to scrub his conscience clean until he realized that justification was a gift received by faith. Christ frees us from our idols (including self-salvation). Luther found his experience of justification precarious, and thus the need to pound the gospel into our heads.
Lewis had been a Christian for years but had an eye-opening experience focused on the reality of forgiveness rather than the intellectual affirmation of forgiveness. In justification we experience forgiveness. Too many seem to hold to a theoretical forgiveness instead of enjoying the actual forgiveness of their sins.
Schaeffer had been in ministry for many years before coming to a similar conclusion. He re-thought his whole theology during his crisis of faith. This would be deconstruction in the positive sense: discovering what you really believe and should believe. This was the road to confirmation of his faith, not apostasy.
Honesty
Building on this, Ortlund brings us to 1 John 1 and the necessity for forgiveness to have fellowship with one another. We confess the reality of our sin to have fellowship with God and each other. “Walking in the light in this text is honesty with other Christians.” Putting on the mask of godliness impedes actual change. Honesty puts our image-management to death. The walls come down and we can enjoy intimacy with one another.
It is not this that cleanses, but the blood of Christ that cleanses us from our sin. But we don’t enjoy that cleansing while we hide our sins for God and one another. Confessing our sin slays our pride. We need not hide any longer, keeping people at a distance. We also are less likely to hold other’s sins against them.
Pain
While we often think of pain as an obstacle to Christian growth, in God’s economy is it a means of growth. “The anguish, disappointments, and futility that afflict us are themselves vital building blocks to our growth.” This is an unpleasant reality. God prunes us, and weans us from the world. He establishes the conditions by which we go deeper in Christ.
Here he speaks of the pain of mortification and speaks of the difference between mortification and self-flagellation. Mortification is a response to Christ’s work, not a fulfilling or completion of it. We starve sin and temptation by looking to Christ rather than satisfying our desires.
Breathe
This is an odd title to the chapter on the means of grace. He explains it as inhaling (reading the Word) and exhaling (prayer). The means of grace are essential to knowing Christ, seeing our sin and God’s provision, and knowing who we are in Christ and what it means to bear His image. So many of us don’t grow because we either don’t read or don’t pray (or both).
He speaks briefly of how to read the Bible with Christ as the focus. You want to follow the Storyline that culminates in Christ. We “will go deeper with Christ no deeper than you go into Scripture.” Unfortunately he doesn’t really get into why we don’t read very much. Our intake of Scripture, sermons and books is frequently meager. We are being discipled in worldliness as a result.
In terms of prayer, he focuses on being children speaking to the Father who loves them so much He sent His Son to get them. He encourages the use of the use of the Psalms to learn how to pray.
Supernaturalized
This final chapter focuses on the Holy Spirit. The Christian life is supernatural due to the indwelling of the Spirit. It is not a self-improvement project. He dives into the already/not yet reality initiated by the coming of the Son and the sending the Spirit. We are in the new age, which overlaps with the end of the old age. Jesus continued His work through the Apostles by the Spirit. He continues the work of Christ, rather than replacing the work of Christ. His goal is to highlight Christ, not Himself, however. “The subjective work of the Spirit works in tandem with the objective work of Christ.”
Conclusion: What Now?
He briefly wraps all of this up:
“I have one thing to say. Look to Christ. You will grow in Christ as you direct your gaze to Christ. If you take your eyes off of Jesus Christ and direct your gaze to your own growth, you will prevent the very growth you desire.”
In this he quotes John Newton as well. Look to Christ. Pastors, point them to Christ.
Dane Ortlund has given us another excellent book. It is all there is to say about sanctification? No. But he speaks to the most important things. He wants a book that can be read, not one that is dreaded because it is so thick. He also keeps bringing us back to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. There are no quick fixes, seven steps or other manageable means. He offers Christ, the One who changes us.
Cavman Considers 
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