This Momentary Marriage

This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence
John Piper, Noel Piper (Foreword)

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Reflecting on forty years of matrimony, John Piper exults the biblical meaning of marriage over its emotion, exhorting couples to keep their covenant as a display of Christ’s covenant-keeping love for the church.

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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.

“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 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 

“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, 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 

“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

About the Author

ECPA Gold Medallion winner John Piper is senior pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and the head of Desiring God. He has written numerous books on topics that include personal holiness, missions and historical figures.