Dane C. Ortlund

Deeper

Dane Ortlund's Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners (2021) is a pastoral and theologically rich guide to the often-misunderstood question of how Christians actually grow. Ortlund's central thesis is disarmingly simple: genuine sanctification is not a matter of trying harder, doing more, or accumulating better spiritual habits. It is a matter of going deeper — deeper into the grace of Jesus Christ, deeper into the gospel truths that saved us in the first place. Drawing on the wisdom of figures such as John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Goodwin, and Herman Bavinck, Ortlund argues that the engine of Christian growth is not self-improvement but an ever-expanding knowledge of and union with Jesus himself. The book is anchored in 2 Peter 3:18 — "Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" — and unfolds what it looks like to do exactly that.