Chapter 4: Embrace - "Deeper" by Dane Ortlund

Preparing Your Heart: Embrace

As you prepare to read this chapter on God's love, you might think, "I already know God loves me." And you're right - in a sense. No Christian doubts that God loves them. But Ortlund isn't interested in simply confirming what you already know. He wants to expand your understanding of divine love beyond what you've ever conceived.

The apostle Paul prayed that believers might "know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). This paradoxical prayer points to the difference between intellectual acknowledgment and experiential reality. Many of us live with a head knowledge of God's love that hasn't fully penetrated our hearts and transformed our lives.

This chapter invites you to move from knowing about God's love to being astonished by it. To transition from hearing about divine love with your ears to seeing it with the eyes of your heart, as Job did when he said, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you" (Job 42:5).

As you read, prepare to be challenged by how small your current conception of God's love might be. But also prepare to be comforted by a love so vast and unfailing that it can embrace you at your worst, not just your best. For it is precisely in your weakness and messiness that Christ's love becomes most astonishingly beautiful.

Before You Read

Think about your current experience of God's love. Is it more of an intellectual concept or a felt reality in your daily life? What prevents you from experiencing it more deeply?
Where do you find it hardest to believe that God truly loves you? What areas of your life seem beyond the reach of His embrace?

Embrace: The Love of God

This chapter focuses on experiencing the transformative love of God. Our growth in Christ is directly tied to our experience of God's love for us.

"My first challenge is not, however, to convince you that God loves you. You know that. You cannot be a Christian without knowing it. My first challenge is to convince you of how much greater God's love is than even now you conceive."

The Unknowable Love of Christ

In Ephesians 3:16-19, Paul prays that believers would "know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge." This seems paradoxical - to know what cannot be known. But Paul is saying we need to move from intellectual assent to heart experience.

Like Job who said, "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you" (Job 42:5), we need to move from hearing about God's love to seeing and tasting it.

Filled with the Fullness of God

As we experience Christ's love, we are "filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19). This is an astonishing claim - that finite humans can be filled with divine fullness. Yet this is precisely what God delights to do.

His love for us never wanes, never sours, never cools. At our point of deepest shame and regret, that's where Christ loves us the most.

Experiencing Divine Love

We experience God's love as we look at Jesus and as the Holy Spirit pours God's love into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). Our awareness of our unloveliness doesn't disqualify us from experiencing God's love - it qualifies us to be astonished by it.

"If you saw yourself as lovely, you could feel loved to a degree, but you could not be astonished with how loved you are. It's precisely our messiness that makes Christ's love so surprising, so startling, so arresting—and thereby so transforming."

Discussion Questions

What's one of the most meaningful gifts you've ever received? What made it special - the gift itself, the person who gave it, the timing, or the thought behind it?
What is the difference between knowing about God's love and experiencing God's love?
What barriers in your life make it difficult to experience God's love?
How might your growth change if you focused more on receiving God's love than on your own efforts?
Have you had moments when God's love became especially real to you? What were the circumstances?
How does understanding your unloveliness actually qualify you to be amazed by God's love?

Application

This week, begin each day by writing down one specific evidence of God's love in your life. Then, identify one area where you struggle to believe God loves you. Bring that specific area to God in prayer, asking Him to help your unbelief. Throughout the day, when that area of doubt arises, consciously remind yourself that this is precisely where Christ's love is most stunning.