If we wanted to read a book about what Jesus did, we would have many options available to us. But if we wanted to read a book about who Jesus is, well, the options would be far fewer. Obviously the two studies are closely connected, for what Jesus did is inexorably tied to who he is. Yet the two studies are not identical, for his heart can’t be conflated with his actions.
So who is Jesus? If we carefully separate his person from his actions, what will we find? This is the question at the heart 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 really? What is most natural 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, perhaps like some of those studies on the attributes of God that somehow seem to reduce the living God to a dry, bulleted list of characteristics. But Ortlund’s treatment is
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