Disguised Transgression
By John Gavazzoni

According to one definition, transgression is "the action of going beyond or overstepping some boundary or limit." As such it has the connotation of trespass. One of the egregious ways we can transgress spiritually is to affirm things about ourselves that belong only to God. This kind of transgression, this kind of trespass, disguises itself as a sort of highly developed spiritual mysticism, e.g., as in Satan appearing as an angel of light. It usually involves extrapolating from some truth in a way that oversteps a divine boundary. It's like using a truth as a springboard into imaginary flights of fancy. Those who gobble up such gobbledy-gook do so--at least in many cases--because it feeds their ego: "Look how readily I have embraced this elite revelation. It means I'm among an elite company of highly receptive, keenly tuned-in saints," goes the (often) unconscious inner conversation with one's self.

There are very gross forms of the above, such as, for instance, insisting, on the basis of one being A son of God, that we ought not to entertain any thoughts about any distinction between ourselves as sons of God and Jesus, THE uniquely-begotten Son of God. One such person I had a run-in with, dared to say on the above basis that he was correct in calling himself THE Son of God. My reply was, "I know THE Son of God, and you aren't He!" Most Christians would spot such lunacy without a second thought of consideration, but there are more subtle ("Now the serpent was more subtle than all the beasts of the field that the Lord God had made."), forms, and one of those has repeatedly appeared on at least one internet forum.

The one I have in mind urges (particularly) fellow believers to understand, and earnestly affirm, that we are love. It's a prime example of using a truth as a springboard into theological la-la land, i.e., extrapolating on the basis of a truth so as to transgress, to trespass, to go beyond and overstep a divine boundary. The exhortation is to confess, as an individual, "I am love." The truth used as a springboard in this case, I assume, is the truth that "God is love" which John states, and then, in the immediate context, repeats himself in his first epistle.

I suppose, along such reasoning, one could, on the basis of Jesus saying "God is Spirit," that one could say, therefore, "I am Spirit because God is my Father, and 'God is the Father of spirits,' " as Paul said. We would, though, be neglecting to include the fact that the Spirit which God IS, the Spirit OF God, THE Holy Spirit stands out singularly in contrast to the existence of spirits (plural). But back to the more presently common nutty self-affirmation, "I am love:" No you're not. God is love. You are loved by the God who is love, and that love edifies the body of Christ as it builds itself up by that love "until we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto the perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." That Son of God, that Christ, is "THE Son of His (God's) love" and in Him, we share that love.

Scripture is careful, in such matters, to sanctify (set apart) God as the Source of all that we need to be filled with, and we transgress into the territory which belongs to, and which is, God when we make affirmations about ourselves that ought to be exclusive to God. This is about "rightly cutting the Word of Truth," it's about not coming to scripture with what amounts to a blunt axe instead of the fine scalpel required to so rightly cut. We receive from out of all that God is to us in Christ, but He is Giver and we are the recipients of that giving, but not so as to make ourselves to be what only God is. This is holy ground, brethren. Even our Lord Jesus trod carefully on such ground in His confession, "The Father is greater than I." Though "in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily," He is careful to confess the Father to be greater than He as His Source.

While it is true that "as He (Christ Jesus) is, so are we in this world," isn't it interesting that even Jesus never said, "I am love." He is "the Son of His (the Father's) love," and as He is, so are we in this world.