This Momentary Marriage and Velvet Steel, companion books from John Piper, are now available.
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 Piper in This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence.
Though selfishness and cultural bondage obstruct the wonder of God’s purpose for marriage, it is found in God’s Word, where his design can awaken a glorious vision capable of freeing us from small, Christ-ignoring, romance-intoxicated views.
Reflecting on God’s Word and forty years of matrimony, Piper explains:
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.
“If you are married, this is why,” says Piper. “If you hope to be, this should be your dream.”
Endorsements for This Momentary Marriage
“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.”
-Ray Ortlund, Pastor, Immanuel Church, Nashville
“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
“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 Köstenberger, author, God, Marriage & Family
“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 and Revive Our Hearts radio host
“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, author
“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.”
-Chuck Colson, founder, Prison Fellowship
“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
Velvet Steel: The Joy of Being Married to You
Beyond the tough love of covenant-keeping is a warmth and tenderness that can’t be denied. So while This Momentary Marriage focuses on the theological meaning of marriage, its companion volume, Velvet Steel, reveals the rich, emotional dimension.
Within these pages Piper shares a series of poems written for his wife, Noël, during the first forty-two years of their relationship, beginning with the day of their engagement. He provides readers with a taste of one man’s tender affections for his wife—poems that he hopes will stir readers’ affections for their own spouses and ultimately for the Maker of marriage.
You can browse these poems at Crossway.org.
“She looks away from the troubles and miseries and obstacles of life that seem to make the future bleak, and she focuses her attention on the sovereign power and love of God who rules in heaven and does on earth whatever he pleases (Ps. 115:3). She knows her Bible, and she knows her theology of the sovereignty of God, and she knows his promise that he will be with her and will help her and strengthen her no matter what. This is the deep, unshakable root of Christian womanhood. And Peter makes it explicit in 1 Peter 3:5. He is not talking about just any woman. He is talking about women with unshakable biblical roots in the sovereign goodness of God—holy women who hope in God.”
 by John Piper: "She looks away from the troubles and miseries and obstacles of life that seem to make t){kind=link}
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