Tolle Lege: This Momentary Marriage

Readability:  2

Length:  180 pgs

Author:  John Piper

Marriage finds power, not by making much of husband and wife, but by making much of Christ and His church.  Marriage is glorious, but it will dissolve into something greater, it is “a parable of permanence”.  I remember first listening via podcast to this book in sermon form in 2007 hoping it would become a book.  It has – This Momentary Marriage. There is power here for your marriage.  “How to” pragmatic books have their place, but too often they are absent of power.  The gospel is that power.

The most important implication of this conclusion is that keeping covenant with our spouse is as important as telling the truth about God’s covenant with us in Jesus Christ.  Marriage is not mainly about being or staying in love.  It’s mainly about telling the truth with our lives.  It’s about portraying something true about Jesus Christ and the way he relates to his people.  It’s about showing in real life the glory of the gospel.

If we make secondary things primary, they cease to be secondary and become idolatrous. They have their place. But they are not first, and they are not guaranteed. Life is precarious, and even if it is long by human standards, it is short. “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” (Prov. 27:1).

So it is with marriage. It is a momentary gift. It may last a lifetime, or it may be snatched away on the honeymoon. Either way, it is short. It may have many bright days, or it may be covered with clouds. If we make secondary things primary, we will be embittered at the sorrows we must face. But if we set our face to make of marriage mainly what God designed it to be, no sorrows and no calamities can stand in our way. Every one of them will be, not an obstacle to success, but a way to succeed. The beauty of the covenant-keeping love between Christ and his church shines brightest when nothing but Christ can sustain it.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT-cqLZNfao]