Deeper
Does growing as a Christian mean doing more or becoming better? In Deeper, Dane Ortlund helps you grow in grace and godliness by gazing upon Christ.
Unsearchable Riches
In 9 chapters and just under 200 pages, Ortlund gives a game plan for growth. His thesis is that real change does not happen by outward improvement, intellectual improvement, or felt experience. Instead, real change happens by by growing deeper. Sanctification does not happen by improving or adding, but by submerging. Going deeper with God, in Christ, by the Spirit.
Chapter 1 starts the book by looking at seven facets of Christ to better explore who he is. Ortlund urges us to know the real Christ by pressing further into who he is as a person. Chapter 2 takes us down to the depths of despair, to feel the sinfulness of our sin, to collapse and then return in faith to Christ. Ortlund writes with theological precision and devotional warmth.
Justification and Sanctification
I was most moved by Chapter 5, which examines the relationship between justification and sanctification. Furthermore, Ortlund explains how idolatry is actually the flip side to justification by faith. “It is asking a created thing rather than the Creator to render a verdict over me.”
Ortlund continues by looking at Luther, Lewis, and Schaeffer. For Lewis, I was surprised to see him say that assenting and affirming to faith by the intellect is very different than experiencing or having the substance of faith. It helped me see the dangers of theologizing, without experiencing true worship.
Gazing on Christ
With careful instruction, Ortlund shows in Chapter 7 how pain is a part of God’s plan to help us grow. This chapter, like the rest of the book, has Ortlund writing with the heart of a pastor. He says that our tears accelerate and deepen growth. He references Owen, and explains what “mortification” means. We suffocate sin by looking away to Christ.
And exhorting us to look to Christ is exactly how Ortlund ends his book. We grow by gazing on Christ. It all makes sense: We grow in God by growing deeper in Christ. Deepening our understanding of him. Deepening our relationship with him. Deepening our lives to align with him. Jesus is all-consuming. And he is life-giving.
I received a media copy of Deeper and this is my honest review. Find more of my book reviews and follow Dive In, Dig Deep on Instagram - my account dedicated to Bibles and books to see the beauty of the Bible and the role of reading in the Christian life. To read all of my book reviews and to receive all of the free eBooks I find on the web, subscribe to my free newsletter.