. . . the one beneath The One
,Who I am
She was visiting from Africa and knew about our family from her boss, our son Ben. After meeting Ben’s parents (that’s us), she shook Tim’s hand as Ben introduced them to each other.
“This is my brother Tim,” he said.
“Oh, so you’re the one that runs?” she asked.
“No,” Ben said, “That’s Butch.”
“So, then,” she looked at Tim, “You’re the one beneath the one that runs. So what else do you do?”
“He’s an elder at church,” Ben said.
“Oh, so what does that involve?” she asked.
“I help on the leadership team,” Tim replied.
“So you’re the preacher?” Joyce asked.
“Well, I do preach every once in a while but my dad does most of the preaching,” Tim answered.
“Oh, so then you’re the one beneath the one that preaches!” Joyce said.
“What else do you do?” Joyce asked.
Ben interjected, “He’s a pilot.”
“You fly airplanes?”
“Yes, but I only fly one; I’m a private pilate,” Tim answered, trying to back- peddle before she assumed he was a commercial pilot.
Ben interjected, “Doesn’t Jason have his license, too? Can he do what you do?”
“Actually he has his IFR certification,”Tim answered. “So he can do more than I can now.”
To which Joyce responded, “So you’re the one beneath the one that flies.”
That’s how Joyce got introduced to the males in Ben’s family. That’s how Tim discovered what it means to be “the one beneath the one.”
What is means to be the one beneath the one
The one beneath the one follows in the steps of another. He has someone else above him. There is an order and a structure.
Being in Adam means I act like I am “the one.” I am in charge, in control, and responsible to no one. That’s our sin nature.
Being in Christ means I am the one beneath the One. I am not in charge or in control, and I am accountable to Him. That’s a new (or divine) nature.
Adam wanted to a god in the perfect world God created. Adam wanted to be the one. Jesus came to be a servant in the cursed world of Adam’s making. He truly is The One.
Our goal must be to become like Him. It helps to ask ourselves, “Am I acting like I am the one, or the one beneath The One?!” Answering that question tells us who we really are.
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Photo credit: WikiImages at pixabay.com
A note from Gertrude: our son Tim shared this illustration in a sermon he recently preached at church. The idea for this blog post came from this conversation and his thoughts in his message.
