Although this book’s controversial contention that marriage is an unbreakable bond for life gets the most attention today (which is a testimony both to the sad state of the churches today and to the necessity of the book), the book is a mainly positive explanation and application of the Bible’s teaching about marriage in all of marriage’s aspects.

Fundamentally, Marriage The Mystery of Christ and the Church is a Reformed pastor’s instruction and exhortation to married couples, especially young married couples, with the purpose that they glorify God in their marriages and enjoy the bliss of this blessed communion of life.

The timeliness of the book is evident simply from the rate of divorce, not alone in North America in the early twenty-first century, but also in Reformed churches throughout the world.

The previous edition of the book had the subtitle The Covenant-Bond in Scripture and History to reflect the second section, a history of the church’s doctrine and practice of marriage from Augustine and the early church through Calvin and the Reformation to the contemporary chaos. This edition drops the subtitle, but the historical section remains.