The Puritan Richard Sibbes put it this way: “When [Christ] saw the people in misery, his bowels yearned within him; the works of grace and mercy in Christ, they come from his bowels first.” That is, “whatsoever Christ did . . . he did it out of love, and grace, and mercy”—but then Sibbes goes one step deeper—“he did it inwardly from his very bowels.”1 The Jesus given to us in the Gospels is not simply one who loves, but one who is love; merciful affections stream from his innermost heart as rays from the sun.
