This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence [Hardcover]

John Piper (Author), Noël Piper (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2009

Reflecting on forty years of matrimony, John Piper exalts the biblical meaning of marriage over its emotion, exhorting couples to keep their covenant for all the best reasons.

Even in the days when people commonly stayed married "'til death do us part," there has never been a generation whose view of marriage was high enough, says Pastor John Piper. That is all the more true in our casual times.

Though personal selfishness and cultural bondage obstruct the wonder of God's purpose, it is found in God's Word, where his design can awaken a glorious vision capable of freeing every person from small, Christ-ignoring, romance-intoxicated views. As Piper explains in reflecting on forty years of matrimony: "Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. And ultimately, marriage is the display of God. It displays the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people to the world in a way that no other event or institution does. Marriage, therefore, is not mainly about being in love. It's mainly about telling the truth with our lives. And staying married is not about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant and putting the glory of Christ's covenant-keeping love on display."

This Momentary Marriage unpacks the biblical vision, its unexpected contours, and its weighty implications for married, single, divorced, and remarried alike.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Piper—a pastor, poet and parent—offers a biblical interpretation of and scriptural model for marriage. Piper has honed his distinctive voice—apparent even in his books—over 30 years of public speaking, teaching and preaching, but it's one most narrators ignore or find too challenging to interpret and integrate in their rendition; Grover Gardner makes an admirable effort, but listeners might find his tone incongruent with Piper's. Even if his reading lends a slightly removed and abstract feel to the work, Gardner manages to convey the author's remarkably insightful revelations of the mystery of God's marriage paradigm. A Crossways hardcover. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Review

"Theologically, this book exalts human marriage as a metaphor for the ultimate love story in Christ. Practically, it applies that glorious vision of grace to our daily experiences in marriage, singleness, parenthood, and the most universal of human realities-sin. This book opens our eyes and guides our feet with the grace of Christ."
—Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Lead Pastor, Immanuel Church, Nashville, Tennessee

"This book is a treasure in an era when the common perspective on marriage has been more shaped by sitcoms and self-help books than by Scripture. Dr. Piper lifts our hearts and minds to God's vision for marriage. Embracing God's design and purposes for marriage can make our homes tastes of heaven."
—Nancy Leigh DeMoss, author, Biblical Womanhood in the Home; radio host, Revive Our Hearts

"This is not a 'how to' book on marriage. Instead, this is a 'why to' book. And that's what this culture desperately needs."
—Dennis Rainey, President, FamilyLife

"Miss the radical message of this book and you'll miss the joyful point of marriage. Heed the surprising call of this book and you'll appreciate the sacred privilege of marriage that our culture fails to see."
—Larry Crabb, Jr., Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Colorado Christian University

"A highly original contribution to Christian teaching on marriage. A copy should be put into the hands of every couple preparing for lasting and loving wedlock."
—Charles Colson, founder, Prison Fellowship and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview

"This book grew out of John Piper's forty years of experience in marriage and many years of parenting, pastoring, and studying Scripture. It is filled with rich, practical wisdom about the nature of marriage as a wonderful but temporary gift from God. I have taught about marriage for over thirty years, and I still found much that I could learn from this book."
—Wayne Grudem, Research Professor of Bible and Theology, Phoenix Seminary

"The reason this book is so delightful is that it sets marriage within the matrix of the Bible's fundamental themes: the glory of God, the outworking of justification, the relationship between this life and the life to come, how husbands and wives are to interact with each other this side of the cross, and much more of the same. This is not another little 'how to' book-yet if its God-centered and gospel-centered theology is genuinely absorbed, so many of the 'how to' questions will be robustly answered."
—D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

"John Piper's new book on marriage is an instant classic. It is at once biblical and devotional, the fruit of seasoned theological reflection and four decades of 'momentary' marriage."
—Andreas J. Kostenberger, Senior Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology, Director of Ph.D. Studies, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Crossway; 1 edition (April 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1433507129
• ISBN-13: 978-1433507120
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 84 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the Forty-Year Wait May 18, 2009

By Tim Challies TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

John Piper waited forty years to write a book on marriage. It is only after forty years of marriage that he felt like he would have something valuable to say (or something valuable to add to a very crowded genre of book). "Romance, sex, and childbearing are temporary gifts of God. They are not part of the next life. And they are not guaranteed even for this life. They are one possible path through the narrow way to Paradise. Marriage passes through breathtaking heights and through swamps with choking vapors. It makes many things sweeter, and with it come bitter providences." Four decades of sweetness and bitter providences stand behind this book.

Though I am tempted to say that no generation needs to be reminded of a biblical theology of marriage more than our own, I suspect that hundreds of generations past would disagree, saying that their generation is as desperately in need of God's wisdom. In the book's opening pages, Piper writes of the cultural distortion of marriage, a distortion that sees marriage as little more than temporary convenience that lasts only as long as the romantic feelings remain. He does so "in the hopes that it might wake you up to consider a vision of marriage higher and deeper and stronger and more glorious than anything this culture--or perhaps you yourself--ever imagined. The greatness and glory of marriage is beyond our ability to think or feel without divine revelation and without the illumining and awakening work of the Holy Spirit." The book is built upon this foundation: that marriage is God's doing. It is the doing of God and it is the display of God.

"The aim of this book is to enlarge your vision of what marriage is. As Bonhoeffer says, it is more than your love for each other. Vastly more. Its meaning is infinitely great. I say that with care. The meaning of marriage is the display of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his people." Marriage, then, is a parable, a gracious, glorious parable given by God, that tells of the permanence of Christ's commitment to his people.

The point Piper makes time and time again is this: "Marriage is patterned after Christ's covenant relationship to his redeemed people, the church. And therefore, the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display. That is why marriage exists. If you are married, that is why you are married. If you hope to be, that should be your dream." Thus staying married is not about staying in love but about keeping covenant; getting divorced involves not just breaking a covenant with a spouse but misrepresenting Christ and his covenant. His understand depends, obviously, on a reading of Ephesians 5:32 that sees marriage primarily as a metaphor for Christ and the church. There are some biblical interpreters who would seem to disagree; if I read them properly it seems that many, perhaps mostly of the Presbyterian tradition, would reverse the two, saying that the relationship of Christ and his church helps us understand marriage rather than the other way around. Though I am not entirely convinced one way or the other, I do think Piper makes a sound argument. Even without standing one hundred percent behind it, I found great value in the book.

With Ephesians 5:32 as his starting place, Piper looks at a whole list of topics related to marriage: nakedness without shame; love and romance; forgiveness and forbearing; conformity to Christ; headship and submission; singleness; sex; procreation; evangelism; and divorce.

There were only a couple of areas in which I found myself disagreeing with Piper. The first was in his view of remarriage after divorce. His understanding of Scripture does not allow remarriage under any circumstances. Hence a woman whose husband leaves her and marries another, has no biblical defense in her desire to remarry. Though Piper admits that this is a minority view among Christians, his conscience binds him to it. I tend to disagree with this view and believe that the innocent party may remarry. Yet I understand how Piper arrives at his view and can see how it is consistent with the rest of his views. The second area of disagreement (or perhaps potential disagreement) was in his view of procreation within marriage. Again, because of his starting point at Ephesians 5, he has to raise the importance of spiritual children over natural children, saying that the absolute commands of Scripture pertain to evangelism and not to procreation. In most cases both will happen, but Piper does allow for marriages that deliberately exclude children; I am not so sure we can build a strong biblical argument for this.

But even in these chapters, as with all the rest, I learned a great deal. Particularly strong are the chapters dealing with headship (where he writes of the humbling nature of biblical headship) and the chapter dealing with the gift of sex in marriage. Also excellent was the rather unexpected (but necessary) chapter on singleness. Rare is the book on marriage that writes also of singleness and God's plan for those who do not marry.

Perhaps the emphasis I most enjoyed is this: that marriage is not about lifelong fireworks and unending doe-eyed feelings of romance. Instead, marriage is about the long-term commitment to make a statement about God to the rest of the world. In the opening chapter Piper writes, "Marriage is a momentary gift. ... As this book is published, Noel and I are passing our fortieth anniversary of marriage. She is God's gift to me--far better than I deserve. We speak often of the wonder of being married tell one of us dies. It has not been trouble-free. So we imagine ourselves in our seventies or eighties--when divorce is not only sin, but socially silly--sitting across from each other, perhaps at Old Country Buffet, and smiling at each other's wrinkled faces, and saying with the deepest gratitude for God's grace: `We made it.'" This is a realistic book, one that is written from a gritty, true-life perspective. It is a powerful book that turns constantly to the Bible, to the Creator of marriage, to gain his perspective. It is not practical in the sense of offering six easy steps to a healthy marriage, but practical in the sense that it offers a biblical foundation that can support and sustain a healthy, God-honoring marriage. Piper waited forty years to write this book and those long years are reflected from the first page to the last.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book we've read about marriage... August 8, 2009

By Anne TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Our pastor gave this book to my husband and he read it first. It changed his whole perspective of our marriage and our family. Piper speaks of marriage in a way that I've never really looked at it before. I normally struggle to get through the meatiness of Piper's books, but this book was different. It is still very meaty, but I read one short chapter at a time.

I have heard the phrase "bear with one another" all of my life. And in I Corinthians, it says that "love bears all things." But, I have never had anyone explain what that means to me. And that is what Piper begins by talking about. He says that we are to forgive and forbear with one another in our strangeness. That means to realize that we are all different and what are spouses are like may indeed be absolutely "strange" to us--difficult to understand and live with. Yet, we are supposed to love them in their strangeness. I cannot do justice to Piper's explanation in this book, so I will simply encourage you to read it! I hope it will encourage you as it has me and my husband.

Other chapters in the book are about submission, husband's roles, anger and not provoking your children to anger, divorce, singleness, and hospitality. This is a book that must be read bit by bit and pondered--even though the chapters are short. Try not to make any assumptions about the book before you read it or prejudge the chapters. You may be caught off guard by the first two chapters--but please press on. The book begins to make so much sense!

I am so thankful to have read this book!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Piper hits a homerun June 1, 2009

By PastoralMusings VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

178 pages of great writing is what is contained in this book. Piper hits a home run. Though we may find minor details about which to quibble, I am convinced that Piper has done us all a service by writing this book.

This Momentary Marriage (hence TMM) is the fruit of Piper's forty years of marriage as well as many years of Bible study. He gives to us the voice of Scripture and experience.

Piper reminds us that marriage is not all about love. Marriage is not sustained by staying in love. Marriage is about covenant keeping.

Piper takes us to the Garden, to the Cross, to the altar, to the marriage bed, and to divorce court. In every place he tells us what the Word of God tells us, and in every place he calls us to strive for permanence in our marriages because it is God's revealed will for us.

Piper reminds us that marriage is to show forth Christ and His church. Thus it is that the relationships within marriage serve to glorify God. It is also in this that we find many characteristics that should be found in the lives and hearts of husbands and wives.

Piper calls upon us to remember that we are to be fruitful and multiply, as God has commanded us. TMM gives us a nudge in the direction of child training by reminding us that the goal of Christian child bearing is to make children disciples of Jesus.

In the end, Piper discusses divorce. Granted, Piper's views are a little more stringent than those of even most conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists today. At the same time, agree or disagree, Piper argues his point well by calling us to remember that Jesus is faithful to His bride. He then calls for us to have the same covenant faithfulness in our own marriages.

It is my wish that this become a classic book on the subject of marriage.

It's that good!