Chad and Emily Van Dixhoorn, Gospel-Shaped Marriage: Grace for Sinners to Love Like Saints (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2022), 155 pp.
Gospel-Shaped Marriage: Grace for Sinners to Love Like Saints by Chad & Emily Van Dixhoorn is a short, encouraging book that leads couples on a God-honoring path that is illuminated by the light of the gospel. The husband and wife team unveils the biblical context of marriage, which is grounded in covenant and unfolds several practical principles for mirroring the triune God.
The authors helpfully define submission as “respect that leads to serving.” However, the emphasis on the notion of “mutual submission” weakened the overall argument. I urge readers to refer to Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism, edited by Wayne Grudem and John Piper for a different perspective.
Overall, though, the book is helpful and encouraging. The essence of the book may be summed up in one critical sentence: “Let it be the prayer of every Christian person reading this book that the marriages in their church will serve as a wonderful picture of the gospel and that this gospel will be the most important thing in our marriages.” In other words, the gospel drives this book and fuels marriages that honor the Lord Jesus Christ.
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.
Veritas et Lux 