Uncle Douglas

Douglas Wilson – I like him. Some of my friends and family don’t – but they’re not so much against what he says, but more of how he says it. His delivery has been called insensitive and having a Trump-like abrasiveness. I can respect that. It’s his dry-wit, speed-of-delivery, and willingness to go where few others go, that is part of his appeal to me. That, and how Biblically sound he is.

In a recent podcast entitled Responsibility, Guilt, and the Ground of True Authority he summarized his Reforming Marriage book so well that I now need to go out and buy it. I’ve got no choice. Here I come, Canon+.

He calls his definition of marriage ‘Covenant Headship’. After listening to his explanation – I absolutely love it. I won’t explain it here – that’s better explained by him after all, and he’s already put it out there, but I absolutely loved his dive into a particular question, that I confess I’ve only assumed the answer to: The sin of Adam – what exactly was Adam’s sin?

Scripture has shown – without cleaning itself up to make it more palatable, nor cleaning up any its characters to make them more palatable – how fallen we all are. Eve was the one who took the fruit, ate of it, then passed it on to Adam who, being an arm’s-length away, participated without putting up a fight – and Adam was ‘blamed’ as the one who sinned.

I always thought of Adam’s sin as two-fold: 1. Not correctly communicating accurately to Eve what God had told him regarding their limitations and, 2. Not trying to persuade Eve away from doing what she was about to do. In short, I perceived him as a co-participant in the sin through his slack-jawed negligence. Maybe that’s true, but let’s just say that’s all it is: What should Adam have done instead? I never carried that thought out, and it would have benefited me greatly if I did years ago. The only functional response to his lack of clarity and lack of effort could be: For him to communicate better, one, and for him to try harder to communicate better, two. That’s so laughably weak – which means that if that’s the solution, then the problem is understood in error.

And Uncle Douglas, as he writes to Dawson (that’s the schtick), lays it out. First, Adam should have stepped in between Eve and the serpent – to protect her. And if his efforts failed and Eve insisted on sinning, then Adam should have stepped in between Eve and God – to take her punishment on himself. Because that is what Jesus did throughout his ministry with the Pharisees, up until the end when He faced Pilate.

The distinction between responsibility and blame is hammered home. Eve was wrong, but Adam should have stepped in, as the covenantal head. As a husband and father, I am not to blame for the sins of my wife and children – but I am responsible as the captain-head of this ship-home. I am to step in and protect them and accept responsibility. I have done that poorly.

Men are to imitate the second Adam, in whose image we are made, not the first Adam, whose image we bear. We can only do that through the Spirit of God.

Romans 8:11 – And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.