Deeper Book Review - Cave To The Cross Apologetics

Deeper – Real Change for Real Sinners

Deeper – Real Change for Real Sinners By Dane Ortlund

Synopsis:

How do Christians grow? Few question the call of the Bible to grow in godliness, but the answer to exactly how this happens is often elusive.

In this book, Dane Ortlund points believers to Christ, making the case that sanctification does not happen by doing more or becoming better, but by going deeper into the wondrous gospel truths that washed over them when they were first united to him.

Drawing on wisdom from figures throughout church history, Ortlund encourages readers to fix their gaze on Jesus in the battle against sin, casting themselves upon his grace and living out their invincible identity in Christ. (Taken from GoodReads page)

Review

I did not care for Otrland’s last book Gentle and Lowly, and with this one he continues to have fine theology but terrible execution just like the last one.

There really are some gems of points about the need to continue to hold the importance of justification as not just a one-time thing and dimensions of pruning as opposed to suffering ala James 1. Also, that Christianity cannot be piecemealed out to individual doctrines.

However, my goodness, can you write a lot and say nothing. Ortland’s prose again is filled with platitudes and not just once or twice per point but several times. There is a lot of “Christianese” in here. He also wrangles in those in Church history. He brings in three people and has to provide you with stories to the quotes he’s mining (and not stories that add to what they’re saying) to make one point.

Fluff writing occurs around good points and the structure suffers for it. By the end of the book you may have gotten some good points (which there absolutely are here) but it took a lot of cotton candy eating to get there. In the final pages (p.172-173) he summarized the purpose of each chapter of the book and even that is peppered with it. Chapter 4 is about “drinking down his undeserved love” or Chapter 6 “receive the anguish of this life as the gentle hand of God to help us rather than to punish us”. Again, the points are good but you need a toothbrush to get out all that sugar.

Deeper, is the name of the book because one has to get about halfway through this book to really start to find elements on the “how to” go deeper. The workbook is also, essentially, questions that are easy enough to ask yourself and could have been added to the book to make it one thing. Again, I tend to be in the minority with Orland’s writing but this is a pass.

Final Grade