Gentle and Lowly
The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers
Book Edition Details
Summary
In a world where divine love often feels like a distant echo, "Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers" unveils a transformative truth. Many believers wrestle with the notion of a God perpetually disheartened by their flaws, yet this profound exploration offers a radiant counter-narrative: Christ's heart overflows with tender compassion for the imperfect and the weary. With roots in Matthew 11, where Jesus proclaims his gentle nature, this book invites readers to experience the warmth of a Savior who beckons the broken to find solace in his embrace. Delving into scripture and the rich legacy of the Puritans, it paints a portrait of boundless grace, assuring those who feel lost of the unyielding and radical love that seeks them out amidst their trials. A beacon of hope, it challenges and comforts, offering a profound reminder of the depth of divine affection for humanity's most vulnerable moments.
Introduction
In the quiet moments of our deepest struggles, when shame weighs heavy and hope feels distant, we often wonder about the true nature of divine love. Does God approach us with reluctance, his patience wearing thin? Or is there something more tender, more welcoming at the very center of his being? The answer lies not in our assumptions but in the gentle words of Christ himself, who opened his heart to reveal what truly lies within. This exploration takes us into the most surprising territory of all—the heart of Jesus Christ. Here we discover not the distant deity of our fears, but one whose deepest nature is gentle and lowly, whose affections are drawn precisely to those who feel most unworthy. Through careful examination of both Scripture and the insights of faithful teachers throughout church history, particularly the Puritans who understood this truth so deeply, we encounter a vision of Christ that defies our natural expectations. From this study, we will understand how Christ's gentleness transforms our approach to failure and weakness, how his lowliness offers refuge to the burdened and broken, and how his unchanging heart provides the foundation for true spiritual rest. This is not merely doctrine to be learned, but a person to be known—one whose heart beats with unshakeable compassion for sinners and sufferers alike.
The Heart Revealed: Christ's Gentle and Lowly Nature
In all the Gospel accounts spanning eighty-nine chapters, there exists only one place where Jesus explicitly describes his own heart. This remarkable revelation comes in the midst of his invitation to the weary: "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." The word "heart" in biblical terms represents far more than emotions—it signifies the central animating core of a person's being, the motivation headquarters from which all actions flow. When Jesus reveals his heart as gentle and lowly, he is pulling back the veil on his deepest nature, showing us what drives him most fundamentally. This gentleness speaks of one who is not trigger-happy or harsh, not easily exasperated, but understanding beyond measure. His natural posture is not a pointed finger but open arms. The lowliness Christ describes is not weakness but accessibility. Despite his resplendent glory and dazzling holiness, no one in human history has been more approachable. There are no prerequisites, no hoops to jump through. The minimum qualification for entering his embrace is simply to open yourself to him—your very burden is what qualifies you to come. This runs counter to every human institution, where proximity to greatness typically requires credentials or worthiness. What emerges from this self-revelation is a portrait that confounds our natural expectations. We instinctively project onto Jesus our understanding of how the world works—that the wealthy look down on the poor, that the beautiful are put off by the ugly. But Christ's divine nature operates by entirely different principles. His transcendent holiness doesn't create distance from sinners; it creates the perfect capacity for drawing near to them without being contaminated or overwhelmed.
The Heart in Action: Compassion, Intercession, and Advocacy
The heart Jesus claimed with his words, he proved with his actions throughout the Gospel narratives. When confronted with human need, his compassion ignited from his innermost core—the Greek word describing his deepest feelings literally refers to the bowels or guts, indicating an involuntary physical response to others' pain. This was not cool, detached pity but a depth of felt solidarity that compelled immediate action. Consider the consistent pattern: lepers received not just healing but touch; the paralyzed found forgiveness flowing before they could even voice their request; crowds moving helplessly through life stirred such compassion in him that he couldn't remain silent. Time and again, it was the morally disgusting and socially reviled who found themselves not merely recipients of mercy, but the very ones to whom Christ most naturally gravitated. His enemies testified to this reality by calling him "friend of sinners"—an accusation that revealed more truth than they intended. This earthly ministry continues through Christ's present heavenly intercession and advocacy. As our high priest, he perpetually brings his atoning work before the Father, not because the cross was insufficient, but because his heart cannot remain passive toward his people's ongoing needs. His intercession is the constant refreshing of our justification, while his advocacy rises up specifically when we fall into particular sins. Like a devoted older brother cheering from the sidelines, he cannot be quieted in his support. The doctrine of intercession reveals something profound about Christ's present activity—he is not a static savior who completed his work and stepped back, but an active friend whose heart remains fully engaged with every struggle his people face. His priestly work flows from his priestly heart, and that heart beats with the same compassion that moved him to heal the sick and comfort the bereaved during his earthly ministry.
The Heart Understood: Old Testament Foundations of Divine Mercy
The gentle and lowly heart revealed in Christ did not appear suddenly in human history but represented the culmination of what God had been revealing about himself throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. When Moses asked to see God's glory, the divine response was not a display of power but a proclamation of character: "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." This foundational revelation in Exodus establishes mercy and grace as the first words God chooses to describe himself. His patience is depicted as "long of nostrils"—the opposite of the flared nostrils of quick anger. Where human relationships require provocation to love but easily ignite to anger, God operates inversely. His anger requires repeated provocation, while his mercy is always ready to burst forth at the slightest opportunity. The prophetic literature reinforces this divine disposition. In Lamentations, at the theological center of the book, we learn that God "does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men." While he does send affliction in his sovereign governance, his deepest nature recoils from causing pain. Punishment is his "strange work," while mercy flows from his natural disposition. Similarly, in Hosea, God's heart "recoils within him" at the thought of abandoning his wayward people, his compassion growing "warm and tender" precisely when judgment would seem most deserved. Isaiah's revelation that God's thoughts and ways are higher than ours is often misunderstood as merely referring to divine mystery. In context, however, it points to the surprising abundance of divine compassion—our thoughts run toward reciprocity and limited forgiveness, while his thoughts soar toward "abundant pardon." The infinite distance between divine and human ways is measured not in abstraction but in the immeasurable depths of mercy that outstrip our capacity to comprehend or receive.
The Heart Forever: Eternal Love and Future Glory
The heart of Christ that was revealed in time points toward an eternal reality that will never change or diminish. His love for his own is described as lasting "to the end"—not merely to the conclusion of earthly life, but to the uttermost reaches of eternity itself. This love passed through the ultimate test when Christ walked deliberately toward the cross, knowing full well the horror that awaited him there. On Calvary, the gentle heart of Jesus absorbed the full fury of divine wrath against sin, experiencing a forsakenness so complete that it likely killed him not through physical torture but through the breaking of his heart under the weight of separation from his Father. Yet this supreme demonstration of love was driven by the same heart that had moved him to touch lepers and embrace children—a heart that simply could not bear to leave his people in their lostness. The eternal perspective revealed in Ephesenes shows that all of salvation history serves a single, stunning purpose: "that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." The new heavens and earth exist primarily as the stage on which God will forever display the infinite depths of his gracious heart through Christ. Our future glory is not separate from his heart but the eternal expression of it. This means that those who are united to Christ face a future of unending discovery of divine love. The failures and struggles of this life, rather than disqualifying us from future blessing, become the very means by which the riches of grace will be most brilliantly displayed. Every moment of weakness experienced now will become a facet through which his eternal kindness will shine forth with greater radiance. The heart that welcomed sinners and sufferers in Galilee will be the same heart that welcomes us into eternal joy, having loved us all the way through death itself and out the other side into endless life.
Summary
The most revolutionary truth about Jesus Christ is not found in his mighty works or profound teachings, but in his gentle and lowly heart that beats with unshakeable compassion for those who feel most unworthy of divine love. This heart, revealed clearly in his own words and proven definitively through his willing embrace of the cross, offers profound hope to every person who struggles with failure, weakness, or the haunting sense that they have somehow moved beyond the reach of grace. His is not a love that must be earned through spiritual performance, but one that grows stronger precisely in response to our greatest needs and deepest failures. From this understanding flows a transformed approach to spiritual life—one that runs toward Christ in weakness rather than away from him in shame, that finds in every failure a fresh opportunity to experience the depths of divine mercy. The heart that refused to cast out any who came to him in the first century continues to beat with the same welcoming rhythm today, offering rest to all who labor under the burden of trying to make themselves acceptable to God. For anyone who has ever wondered whether God truly delights in them, whether divine patience has limits, or whether past failures have somehow diminished their place in the divine heart, this exploration of Christ's gentle and lowly nature provides the most certain answer imaginable: his heart is your permanent home, his love your unshakeable foundation, and his mercy your endless inheritance.
Related Books
Download PDF & EPUB
To save this Black List summary for later, download the free PDF and EPUB. You can print it out, or read offline at your convenience.
By Dane C. Ortlund
