“There won’t be marriage and giving in marriage like there are here and now. So, at the principle level, widows and widowers are free to marry in the Lord.”
-John Piper answering “Can I Remarry If My Spouse Dies? Should I?”
While this probably does not mark a change in Piper’s position regarding remarriage for divorced Christians with their ex-spouses still living, I was encouraged that Piper is explicitly open to remarriage for surviving spouses.
This divide between how Piper treats widowed spouses and divorced faithful spouses is a divide I experienced personally following my divorce with a particular pastor.
I tried to explain that a faithful spouse is in the same category as a widowed spouse in the eyes of God’s Law. (By the way, the Apostle Paul appeals to the law as justification for widows being free to remarry–see Romans 7:2-3.)
For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. -Romans 7:2, NLT
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. -Leviticus 20:10, NIV
Of course, the Apostle Paul was aware of divorce as a position–so, he could not have meant the spouse is ALWAYS married as long as the other spouse is alive.
Furthermore, divorce is a legal decree that the spouses are no longer married. Hence, applying these verses to mean once married, always married for life makes little sense as Apostle Paul’s arguments hinges upon what the law says regarding the marriage.
My point in placing Romans 7:2 and Leviticus 20:10 next to each other is to make the point that the law actually releases the faithful spouse from the marriage.
If widowed spouses are free to marry because of how the law is structured per the Romans passage (Romans 7:2-3), then I do not see how a consistent reading of this text with the Old Testament Law can deny divorced faithful spouses the same freedom of remarriage.
Like the particular pastor who denied the analogy between divorced faithful spouses and widowed spouses in my situation, I doubt John Piper will make this connection.
But, IMO, he should!
