By Dane Ortlund

This is a brief but superb book on the heart of Christ. He focuses on Matthew 11:29, where Jesus states that he is gentle and lowly in heart, the only passage where Jesus talks about his heart. But the book elaborates on Christ’s heart with 23 brief chapters, each one focusing on a verse that reflects the heart of Jesus.

In the last year or so, since the book has come out, it has had tremendous impact, and it lived up to its expectations with me. In fact, I would rate it as one of my top 10 books all-time – which includes the last 50 years of reading Christian books. I might even put it right there behind J.I. Packer’s Knowing God, along with A.W. Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy (ironically, Tozer’s superb little book also includes 23 brief chapters).

Ortlund knows his Bible inside and out and he loves Christ. He reflects the biblical perspective on God’s love and mercy to us – and he is also steeped in the Puritans, along with a few similar writers, who serve as guides to the heart of Jesus. These writers, Puritans and others, include Thomas Goodwin, John Bunyan, John Owen, Richard Sibbes, John Flavel, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, and B.B. Warfield. Each of these preachers and writers were deep with God. Reading his excerpts makes me want to read these writers more.

It is not often that I read a book and immediately know that this book will merit multiple rereadings – not just a rereading but rereadings. This is such a book.

God will use this book powerfully in your life.

The publisher includes a dozen ringing endorsements from well-known Christian leaders. Here are a couple of them, just to whet your appetite:

“On the rough, rocky, and often dark path between the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet,’ there is nothing your weary heart needs more than to know the beauty of the heart of Jesus. It is that beauty that alone has the power to overwhelm all the ugly you will encounter along the way. I have read no book that more carefully, thoroughly, and tenderly displays Christ’s heart than what Dane Ortlund has written. As if I was listening to a great symphony, I was moved in different ways in different passages but left each feeling hugely blessed to know that what was being described was the heart of my Savior, my Lord, my Friend, and my Redeemer. I can’t think of anyone in the family of God who wouldn’t be greatly helped by spending time seeing the heart of Jesus through the eyes of such a gifted guide as Ortlund.”
--Paul David Tripp, President, Paul Tripp Ministries; author, New Morning Mercies and My Heart cries out

“Only a few pages in I started to realize how unusual and essential this book is – it is an exposition of the very heart of Christ. The result is a book that astonishes us with the sheer abundance and capacity of his love for us. Breathtaking and healing in equal measure, it is already one of the best books I’ve read.”
--Sam Allberry, Author, 7 Myths about Singleness