Gentle

& Lowly
Hebron Church Reflection Guide
Dear Reader,

I am so excited that you are joining us in our Summer reading of

Gentle & Lowly. My prayer is that these next few weeks will be a
time of incredible spiritual growth for you as you see and savor
our great Savior.

Gentle & Lowly was released in early 2020 and has already sold
well over a million copies. While we believe that no book outside
of the Bible is perfect and free from any error, we have seen how
God has used the truth of this book to stir hearts in affection for
Jesus as we realize the extent of his love for his children.

This reflection guide is designed to accompany an 8 week

reading of Gentle & Lowly. After you have read the chapters for
each week, then this guide will emphasize some of the valuable
insights from the book and ask some questions for reflection.
This guide is designed for use by individuals or groups who want
to read the book together.

I hope that this book will mean as much to you as it has meant to
me over the last year. Whether you are a young Christian or have
walked with Jesus for decades, it is so easy for our hearts to paint
a picture of Jesus that comes from our feelings rather than what
his Word tells us is true. This book is designed to recalibrate our
hearts to the truth of who Jesus is and the depths of his love for
his children.

Happy reading!

Chet Harvey
Associate Pastor of Adult Discipleship

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard
Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News
Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Week 1 ………………………………………….. Chapters 1-3

Week 2 …………………………………………. Chapters 4-6

Week 3 …………………………………………. Chapters 7-9

Week 4 …………………………………………. Chapters 10-12

Week 5 …………………………………………. Chapters 13-14

Week 6 …………………………………………. Chapters 15-17

Week 7 …………………………………………. Chapters 18-20

Week 8 …………………………………………. Chapters 21-23

Week 1
Chapters 1-3: Christ’s Heart and Happiness

Sink In
In the opening chapter, Dane Ortlund points out that
there is one single verse in all of Scripture that
describes Jesus’ heart: I am gentle and lowly in
heart… Of all the things that we could know about
our Savior’s heart, this is what God chose to reveal
to us. As Ortlund notes, the word gentle here refers
to someone who has a low estate in life, and the
word lowly refers to someone who is accessible.
Our Savior made himself of low estate and
accessible to us, coming near to us in the
incarnation.

Our skewed intuitions often tell us that God is not

gentle and loving toward us, but harbors resentment
or anger. As Ortlund says, we can all too easily
picture Jesus as coming close, but holding his nose.
In order to embrace that Jesus longs to be near us,
we have to rely on what God’s Word actually tells us
about him, rather than on our personal feelings. On
page 24, Ortlund writes, “This is why we need a
Bible. Our natural intuition can only give us a God
like us. The God revealed in Scripture deconstructs
our intuitive predilections and startles us with one
whose infinitude of perfections is matched by his
infinitude of gentleness.” Our infinite God is infinitely
gentle!

Of course, another extreme is to view Jesus apart

from the wrath testified in the Bible. How do we
understand both his mercy and wrath? As Ortlund
will show throughout the book, God indeed displays
wrath toward sin, but the heart of Jesus is most
naturally driven by affection.

In order to understand Christ’s heart toward sinners,

we must understand his happiness within himself.
Our God is a God of infinite joy within his being. The
Trinity exists in eternal joy. As Ortlund writes, when
we come to Christ for forgiveness, we are laying
hold of his own great joy, which is his natural state
within himself. Jesus is a fountain of joy!

Reflect
1. What stood out the most for you in these
chapters?
2. Are you ever tempted to believe that Christ
doesn’t have a gentle heart toward you? What
causes these feelings?
3. When you think of Christ, do you tend to think
of him as loving or frustrated with you?
4. How can you lay hold of the truth of Christ’s
heart toward you?
Week 2
Chapters 4-6: Christ’s Heart Toward Sinners

Sink In
In chapter 4, Ortlund wants us to think about
Christ’s sympathy toward sinners in their sins.
Hebrews 4:16 tells us that Christ is able to
sympathize with us in our weaknesses. As Ortlund
writes, the word sympathize here means solidarity
with, or one who suffers alongside. I like the way
that Ortlund puts it: the writer of Hebrews is showing
Christ’s withness toward us. He doesn’t love us
from far away, but as one who walks alongside us
even in the midst of our sin.

Once again, the Bible confronts our feelings when

we often feel most alone in our sin. In spite of what
our feelings tell us, the truth that we can stand on is
that if we are believers in Christ, then he is nearer to
us than a brother in the middle of our struggles. And
not only is he with us, he deals gently with us in our
sin! Hebrews 5:2 tells us that Christ deals gently
with ignorant and wayward people. As Ortlund
writes, this expression encapsulates every single
sin and sinner. There is no sin that a believer can
commit that will make Christ move away from them.
On page 55, Ortlund writes, “Rather than dispensing
grace to us from on high, he gets down with us, he
puts his arm around us, he deals with us in the way
that is just what we need. He deals gently with us.”

The Savior who deals gently with his child will never
cast that child from his presence. If you have made
Jesus your Savior, then he will always be your
Savior. Ortlund writes this incredible truth: “In order
for you to fall short of loving embrace into the heart
of Christ both now and into eternity, Christ himself
would have to be pulled down out of heaven and put
back in the grave.” Christ’s death and resurrection
accomplished his desire to be near to you for all
eternity. Your sin cannot separate you from what
Christ has accomplished!

Reflect
1. What are some quotes or ideas that stood out
to you in these chapters?
2. Are you tempted to believe that your sin
causes separation between you and Christ? Why
do you believe this?
3. What did you learn about Christ’s sympathy
toward believers in these chapters?
4. What did you learn about Christ’s heart toward
you in these chapters?
Week 3
Chapters 7-9: Christ’s Action Toward Sinners

Sink In
In chapter 7, Dane Ortlund writes of what happens
when we sin. In particular, he wants us to see how
God’s grace is evoked towards us in the midst of
our sin. One really important concept that he lays
out is that grace is not a thing that God merits
towards believers, but is Jesus himself. When we
talk about God’s grace toward sinners, we are
talking about Jesus. This is an important idea,
because it means that when you have been given
Jesus through repentance and faith, he is always on
your side. In Ortlund’s simple words: “He hates sin.
But he loves you.” As Christians, we will never be
under the threat of God’s wrath because we have
Christ himself with us.

And not only is Christ with us, he is in heaven

interceding for us. Hebrews 7:25 shows us how
Christ’s heart is working for the good of his people
today. He is on our side even in his heavenly reign.
As Ortlund notes, this does not mean that the
Father is against us or needs to be talked into
accepting us. Rather, the Father delights in saying
‘Yes’ to those for whom the Son intercedes.
Along with being with us and interceding for us,
Jesus is also advocating for us. As Ortlund writes in
chapter 9, advocacy is similar to intercession but a
bit different. While intercession is something that
Christ does for us in general, advocacy is what
Christ does for us whenever we sin. Whenever we
sin (and yes, it is often!) Christ advocates for us
before the Father: “He rises up and defends your
cause, based on the merits of his own sufferings
and death.” This means that we don’t need to make
excuses for our sins or minimize them in hopes that
God won’t see them as a big deal. Rather, we can
acknowledge that sin is a big deal and our Savior is
even bigger.

Reflect
1. Were there any new ideas for you in these
chapters or any quotes that stood out in
particular?
2. How does Christ’s nearness, intercession, and
advocacy help us to understand our sin?
3. Do you regularly think of Jesus as interceding
for you before the Father?
4. What difference does it make to know that it is
the Father’s joy to say yes to those for whom the
Son intercedes?
Week 4
Chapters 10-12: Characteristics of Christ’s
Heart

Sink In
In chapter 10, Dane Ortlund writes that we should
be drawn into Christ’s heart because of its beauty.
Soak in these words for a minute:

All I mean is, ponder him through his heart.

Allow yourself to be allured. Why not build into
your life unhurried quiet, where, among other
disciplines, you consider the radiance of who
he actually is, what animates him, what his
deepest delight is? Why not give your soul
room to be reenchanted with Christ time and
again?

In chapter 11, the focus is on Christ’s emotional life,

which might not be something you’ve spent much
time thinking about before now. When Jesus
became human, he became fully human, emotional
life and all. There is much to contemplate in this
chapter, but I want to focus on one implication:
When Christ is loving toward you, it’s not simply
what he does but what he feels. And the best part is
that Jesus’ emotions have no hint of sin, he is
perfectly emotional. His emotions aren’t swayed by
his sin because he has no sin. Because of this, we
can trust that Christ’s love for us is perfect in every
single way.

Even more so, we can trust that Christ is a genuine,

tender friend to every believer. On page 115,
Ortlund writes, “In Jesus Christ, we are given a
friend who will always enjoy rather than refuse our
presence.” Our perfect Savior enjoys our company!
This is one way that Jesus is different than us.
While sin affects our ability to perfectly love and
enjoy each other, there is no sin to affect this ability
within Jesus. He welcomes us in, knows us
perfectly, perfectly enjoys and delights in us, and
perfectly leads us as Savior and Friend. What a
redeemer!

Reflect
1. How did these three chapters enable you to
think differently about Jesus?
2. What does the friendship of Jesus mean to
you?
3. What does it mean for you that Jesus pursues
you and allows you to pursue him (page 117)?
4. How do you understand Jesus’ compassion
and anger after reading these chapters?
Week 5
Chapters 13-14: The Spirit and Father Together
With Christ

Sink In
One of the most important aspects of Christ’s
revelation to us as a human is that he reveals the
very heart of God. In chapters 13-14, Ortlund shows
how the Spirit and Father are aligned with Christ in
his heart for sinners. Although there are many
things that Ortlund could write about the Holy Spirit,
he chooses one important aspect of the Spirit’s
work: “[T]he Spirit causes us to actually feel Christ’s
heart for us.” One of the most important things that
the Holy Spirit does in your life is causes you to
know Christ’s heart for you, not just at an intellectual
level, but deep within your soul. As Ortlund puts it,
the Spirit turns the recipe of Christ into taste. To put
it another way, any affections that you have toward
Jesus are a result of the Spirit’s work within you.

Not only does the Spirit work within us to help us

believe Christ’s heart toward us, the Father also
works with Christ in showing mercy toward sinners.
Ortlund acknowledges that many Christians struggle
with the belief that Christ is for them but the Father
is more reluctant to accept them. However, this
couldn’t be further from the truth. As Ortlund writes
of the Father and Son, “The heart of the both is one
and the same; this is, after all, one God, not two.
Theirs is a heart of redeeming love, not
compromising justice and wrath but beautifully
satisfying justice and wrath.” The unity between the
Father, Son, and Spirit in their love for us should be
a great comfort for the Christian life. And the joy that
is experienced within the Trinity is extended to every
Christian believer.

Reflect
1. Were there any ideas about the Father and
Spirit in these chapters that you had never
encountered before?
2. Have you ever struggled to believe that the
Father loves you as much as the Son does?
3. What are some of the works of the Holy Spirit
mentioned in chapter 13 that stood out to you?
4. Why was it good for Christ to leave us with the
Holy Spirit?
Week 6
Chapters 15-17: The Ways of the Lord

Sink In
Chapters 15-17 move into the ways and workings of
the Lord in the Old Testament. Chapter 15 provides
an interesting contrast between the works of
judgment and mercy in God’s heart. While both are
characteristics of God, judgment is called his
“strange work” and mercy his “natural work”
because mercy is his natural delight. This is a
valuable insight for the Christian because we have
the temptation to believe that God is naturally more
inclined towards anger than towards mercy with us;
however, the heart of Christ reveals a God who
pursues us in the name of mercy.

Chapter 16 looks at God’s glory in the Old

Testament. As Ortlund writes, God’s glory is his
“distinctive resplendence,” or we could say that is
his very Godness. We find in Scripture that God’s
glory is both his goodness in himself and his
goodness toward us. Ortlund goes through the
phrases of Exodus 34:6-7 that reveal the contents
of God’s glory:
-Merciful and gracious

-Slow to anger

-Abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness

-Keeping steadfast love for thousands

Ortlund notes that even the next phrase, visiting the

iniquity of the fathers on the children and the
children’s children, reveals God’s heart because his
mercy extends much further. Of course, this is most
fully revealed in the life of Jesus. We cannot use our
own internal navigation to understand God’s glory,
as Ortlund tells us in the next chapter, but we must
use the navigation that God has given us in the life
of Jesus and in Scripture.

Reflect
1. Did Ortlund give you any new ways to think
about God’s glory in these chapters?
2. In his study of Exodus 34, which phrase
especially grabbed your heart from the list?
3. What practical implications did you find from
Ortlund’s study of Isaiah 55 in chapter 17?
4. What difference does distinguishing judgment
and mercy as his “strange” and “natural” works
make for how you think about God?
Week 7
Chapters 18-20: God’s Heart In Action

Sink In
In the midst of Israel’s exile as penalty for their sin
in the book of Jeremiah, God reveals his ultimate
feelings for them: yearning love. It is one thing to
say that God has mercy, but it is another thing to
see it in action, and that’s exactly what we find here.
The God who punished Israel for their sin was the
God who yearned to show them His love and mercy,
which is what he did for them in Christ. Jesus is the
physical picture of God’s yearning heart in action.

As we are reminded in chapter 19, God’s mercy for

us is not poor and meager, but rich. Ortlund makes
a careful clarification on page 173 when he writes
that mercy isn’t something God simply has, but who
he is. Earlier in the book, he spoke of grace not as a
thing but as Jesus himself. Similarly, mercy is God’s
very character and essence. This is important
because, as Ortlund writes, “If he is essentially
merciful, then for him to pour out mercy is for him to
act in accord with who he is.” This mercy meets us
in the area of our deepest need and brings us all the
way to reconciliation with Christ, and then never
leaves our side because our mercy is our God
himself.
It is important to cling to this truth from Scripture,
because our hearts lean toward the false belief that
we must keep the law in order to lay claim to God’s
mercy. But as Ortlund says, “To help the gospel… is
to lose the gospel.” The beauty of the gospel is that
God leads us all the way home. If we get it
backwards and believe that our law-keeping leads
us to Christ, then we will fail to understand the
beauty of the gospel and won’t live in the comforts
of Christ. On the other hand, to believe the gospel
more and more deeply is to rest in the comforts and
assurance of Christ more and more fully.

Reflect
1. What are some new ways that you thought
about God’s mercy as a result of these chapters?
2. In view of Jeremiah 34, what does God’s
yearning love mean for you?
3. On page 173, why is it important to understand
mercy not simply as God’s possession but God’s
very character?
4. In what ways does your heart naturally turn
toward lawishness, and in what ways does the
gospel confront that?
Week 8
Chapters 21-23: Implications of God’s Love

Sink In
The final three chapters of the book provide helpful
applications for understanding God’s love for us.
Chapter 21 begins by telling us that God’s love is
not simply a past tense reality, but is present and
future tense also. One temptation for Christians is to
think that there comes a point when we are
supposed to get it and live for God without the need
for forgiveness and mercy, and the result is that we
often live in quiet shame and fear that God is
disappointed in us. Nothing could be further from
the gospel truth. As Ortlund writes, divine love has
no limit or endpoint. God’s love is with us forever
because he will never leave us nor forsake us.

The future tense of God’s love means that he will be

with us to the very end. The cross was the place
where Jesus showed us the full measure of his love
for us. If he is willing to go through death for you,
then you can trust that he will never leave you or let
you go. He will keep you fast until the end. As
Ortlund says, “You cannot be un-his.”

Ortlund ends the book by thinking through what it

means to glorify God. You might have thought about
this before, but Ortlund presents it as living in the
great joy of God that is now ours in Christ. In
Ephesians 2:7, we are told that our eternal life is for
God to show us the immeasurable riches of his
grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus. God wants
to show us eternal grace and kindness! What an
incredible reminder that God’s love for us is
inexhaustible both in terms of depth and breadth. It
covers our deepest sin and extends for our eternity.
If we will soak deeply in this truth, then it will change
our lives.

Reflect
1. What comforts came to your mind and heart
as you read these chapters?
2. Are you ever tempted to believe that God’s
mercy has an endpoint or a bottom that can be
reached in your life?
3. What aspect of Christ’s work on the cross
spoke to you in chapter 22?
4. What will be your biggest takeaway from the
book?