I’ve had allergies for a long time. I was around 14 when I had my first serious allergic reaction to a friend’s cat. Since then, I’ve tolerated having allergies and built various behavioural patterns to accommodate the allergies e.g., generally staying away from cats.
Over time, I seemed to develop more allergies (hayfever, etc.) which necessitated other coping mechanisms, like antihistamines. Finally, it got to a breaking point, when I had an allergic reaction in the middle of winter with no cats around! I was annoyed, so I finally decided to get tested.
Friends, I wish I hadn’t. Turns out I’m allergic to most of the world, (dust, cats, pollen, grass, etc.) and, most importantly, our dog. I had been attributing the reactions that my dog was likely causing to other things.
Brothers and sisters, I bring this up because my allergies are an analogy to sin in my life. I was so unaware of my sin (and still am to a large degree), until Jesus revealed my sin to me. Little did I know, I had also built coping mechanisms and behavioural patterns to deal with my sin too.
For example, rather than dealing with my own insecurities, I’d project onto others and say they were “triggering” me. This is what sin and pride do, they blind us to ourselves and make themselves so at home in our daily rhythms, that we forget they even exist.
Spirit of Truth
Fortunately – much like my allergy test – we do have a test we can take. John 16, verse 8 states “And when he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment”.
The Holy Spirit who lives in us shows us who we are. He is the spirit of Truth (John chapter 16, verse 13) who will show us the truth of ourselves and how sinful we are, and the truth of Jesus and how amazing his salvation is.
As we spend time with the Spirit and the Word (allowing the Word to read us), we are shaped, and we start seeing the God-shaped holes in our lives that we have tried to fill with other things. We see areas of our lives where we still try and cope on our own strength and intelligence, rather than turning to God and confessing our need to him.
God designed us the way we are for a reason (including my allergies and our dog’s presence in our lives!). He works in everything(!), good and bad alike, for our good – to shape us into Christlikeness (Romans chapter 8 verses 28-29). God is far more interested in the eternal parts of our lives that we’ll carry with us to his presence, than our current comfort!
The Grace Gap
Similarly, as we spend more time with Him and His Word, God reveals to us the depth of our sin, but also the heights of his grace and salvation. A friend once showed me the following:
The top line represents our knowledge of God’s holiness – which grows as we get to know him. The bottom line represents our knowledge of our sinfulness (which similarly grows over time). The larger the difference between the two, the greater and sweeter our view of Jesus Christ and the Cross will be.
Crucially, if our view of grace does not grow in accordance with the other two lines, a gap appears (the black line). When that happens, we feel the need to work for our salvation, because Christ hasn’t fully bought our salvation.
Allergies and Needs
To tie it altogether, what are the hidden sins in your life that you’ve built scaffolding to hide? What are some ways you could bring this God? How could he meet the needs and desires that you’ve been trying to meet via some other means (a.k.a. sinfully)?
Our God is a loving and gracious God, who delights in us. We can come to him in our brokenness because there is abundant grace and mercy through what Jesus Christ has done. He has given us His Holy Spirit to illuminate our need so that we can come to him and find healing, restoration, and fullness.
I disciple university students in the University of Canterbury through the Navigators while currently working towards a Master of Divinity. Outside of this, my wife and I enjoy rock climbing and going on adventures with our dog.