True Gravity
or Becoming the Finger of God on the Eject Button
“Immediately, the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness.” —Mark 1:12
Oswald Chambers says:
The first thing to do in examining the power that dominates me is to take hold of the unwelcome fact that I am responsible for being thus dominated. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because at a point away back I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because I have yielded myself to Him.
Yield in childhood to selfishness, and you will find it the most enchaining tyranny on earth. There is no power in the human soul of itself to break the bondage of a disposition formed by yielding. Yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust (remember what lust is: “I must have it at once,” whether it be the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind) - once yield and though you may hate yourself for having yielded, you are a bondslave to that thing. There is no release in human power at all but only in the Redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One Who can break the dominating power viz., the Lord Jesus Christ - “He hath anointed me . . . to preach deliverance to all captives.”
You find this out in the most ridiculously small ways - “Oh, I can give that habit up when I like.” You cannot, you will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you yielded to it willingly. It is easy to sing - “He will break every fetter” and at the same time be living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. Yielding to Jesus will break every form of slavery in any human life.
“His servants ye are to whom ye obey.” Romans 6:16 [1]
Peter Leithart notes somewhere that our word devil comes from the Greek word ballo, to throw. Diabolical makes the derivation more pronounced. Mark uses the word ekballo to describe the Spirit’s action of throwing Jesus out, ejecting Him, into the wilderness to be tempted. He has been called as Moses, passed through baptism as the Red Sea, ascended and given the Law (in this case, the approval of the Father), and now, as Israel, He is “scattered” in the place of fiery serpents and surrounded by wild beasts. Israel was to be the Word incarnate but she failed. Christ succeeded, with the result that it was Satan here who was ejected by the power of the Law made flesh, carved out on a human life. Filled with the Law, Jesus became the finger of God on the eject button.
In the very next scene that Mark presents, Jesus calls the disciples, teaches with authority (as Moses) and then ejects a demon. The only reason He has such authority is because He Himself has passed through this test. He has become the Ark on the move. As Word, He can cast a demon out with a word. Which brings us back to Chambers’ point. Jesus had passed through a death-and-resurrection in the wilderness and could now mediate this same process for the helpless—us. As saints, when we fast and obey, Satan flees and we too are able to command him in the lives of others. But we cannot command him to whom we are still bowing for counterfeit kingdom.
Just as Jesus ejected Judas, He later ejected the demon from Judah. Her great Day of Atonement came in AD70. The finger of God chose the scapegoat and threw her into the wilderness, outer darkness, forever. The false church, Totus Diabolus, on the last day, is thus, always, and by very definition, the scapegoat (see Totus Diabolus).[2]
Whether the Lord tests us with food, sex, money, power, pride or some suffering like chronic illness or depression (in us or in a loved one), if we endure faithfully we bring gravity with us out of the grave. Life is suddenly more rich, more dense and our words more commanding. True gravitas comes in no other way, even in the life of Christ. He is lifted up so He can draw all men to Himself.
James Jordan wisely commented that a fundamental difference between Barack Obama and John McCain is that only one of them has been through a death-and-resurrection experience.[3] The other is yet untempered. For him, the test of kingdom without personal cost remains alluring. Great leadership comes from those who have been broken as bread so that others may come and eat.
Without death in some form, when it comes to ministry we are the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:14).
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[1] My Utmost For His Highest, March 14th.
[2] The Old Covenant Day of Atonement (covering) could only put the lid on the trash can and spray a fragrant deodorant around (incense). Jesus came to take out (ekballo) the trash.
[3] James B. Jordan, Obama As Fool. There is some talk now about Obama’s foreign policy being “cruciform.” We’ll see how this pans out.
