"This Momentary Marriage" by John Piper, New Call to Covenant-Keeping

Desiring God Ministries has pre-published a new book by Pastor John Piper called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence. Crossway will publish the book in the coming new year. In this small, yet rich volume, Piper accomplishes three monumental tasks. First, he recasts the vision for marriage as covenant-keeping. Second, he defines singleness in its biblical purpose to help us all prize spiritual families higher than natural ones. And third, he lays out a clear, yet often controversial view of divorce and remarriage.  I will look at the first today, and take the other two tomorrow.

With the provocative title "Staying Married is Not About Staying in Love," Piper shows how marriage, all marriage, has been designed and created by God. It is his doing. God means for marriage to bring glory to him - he alone is worthy and he alone deserves it. So Piper refreshingly says,

"So I argue that staying married is not mainly about staying in love. It's about covenant-keeping. If a spouse falls in love with another person, one profoundly legitimate response from the grieved spouse and from the church is, "So what! Your being ‘in love' with someone else is not decisive. Keeping your covenant is decisive""(31).

Piper goes on to explore the deeper meaning of covenant-keeping. He shows how sin, having entered the world and poisoned all relationships, brings shame to bear. Clothes are a confession of our need to cover our shame. Healthy, God-saturated marriages will therefore, be filled with gospel grace as the means by which the marriage covenant thrives.  Piper continues:        

"But marriage is designed to be a unique display of God's covenant grace because, unlike all other human relationships, the husband and the wife are bound by a covenant into the closest possible relationship for a lifetime" (44).

In other words, the gospel and its blood-bought grace, find their highest expression in the forgiving, long-suffering love signaled in the Christian marriage covenant between two sinners.

As you might expect, if you have read other books by John Piper, his assertions arise from granite-solid interpretations of Bible texts. No Christian marriage should be without these insights. No Christian contemplating marriage should go forward without them either. And, as we will see tomorrow, no unmarried believer can flourish without the complementing insights to come.