The Universal Allergy

So, I’m allergic to grass.

It was a depressing day when I found out. I’d been sitting patiently in the doctor’s office, being poked and prodded by an assistant carrying bristles loaded with various and sundry allergens while we waited to see which ones would provoke my skin into itchy and unsightly bumps. The results showed that I was allergic to dust, cockroaches and grass—or, as I find it easier to refer to them, “life.”

Mercifully, they’re hardly noticeable. Worst-case scenario, my nose gets a little stuffy and I sneeze once or twice. Still, it’s always a blow to my pride when someone asks if I have any allergies, although I have managed to come to terms with it. After all, Superman was allergic to his home planet too.

Life and death

But not all allergies are as mild as mine. About six years ago, I remember hearing news of 15-year-old Christina Desforges, who died after kissing her boyfriend. At the time, it was widely assumed that the death was caused by the Canadian teen’s severe peanut allergies, which were triggered when she came into contact with the substance on her boyfriend’s lips. Although the coroner’s report later found this not to be the case, the story did bring to light the serious nature of peanut allergies.

In severe cases, peanut allergies can cause anaphylactic shock, cutting off a victim’s airways or resulting in heart failure in a matter of minutes or even seconds. Those with such allergies must take special care to avoid peanuts and all peanut-related products, as it can literally mean the difference between life and death.

An allergen called sin

But there’s another, far worse allergy out there that we don’t hear much about. It’s universally fatal, although it often takes months or even years before producing a reaction. You and I both have this allergy, as does every other human being in existence. Not a single person is immune to its ultimate effects.

The allergen is called sin. We don’t always think of sin as a deadly allergen, but it is. More often, we hear it defined as “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4, King James Version), which it is. But it’s more than that. Sin is something that will ultimately claim our lives, for “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Those with peanut allergies are constantly on the lookout for the “WARNING: PRODUCT CONTAINS PEANUTS” labels that help them to avoid the foods that could easily cause their own death. Likewise, God’s law acts as a label on certain choices, reading “WARNING: LIFESTYLE CONTAINS SIN.” It was never intended as a series of arbitrary restrictions—the entire purpose of God’s commands is to steer us clear of actions and thoughts that are (whether they appear to be at first glance or not) ultimately harmful for us, leading to our death.

Problem/solution

There remains, however, a problem. While the law provides us with the way to avoid self-destructive lifestyles, what happens in the instances when we break the law? Just as someone with a peanut allergy cannot get rid of anaphylactic shock by vowing never to eat a peanut again, we cannot get rid of sin’s death penalty by vowing never to sin again. Future actions cannot erase past mistakes. However, just as those with life-threatening allergies carry with them an “EpiPen” to counteract allergic reactions that would otherwise claim their lives, we, too, have access to a solution: the blood of Christ.

The book of Revelation describes Christ as “Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:5). Just as an EpiPen does not remove a peanut allergy from an individual, but rather saves the person from the death that peanuts would cause him or her, so, too, Christ’s sacrifice does not enable us to sin, but rather saves us (upon true repentance) from the penalty that sinning brings against us—that is, death. But it doesn’t mean we get to return to munching on peanuts.

You and I are allergic to sin. Its final symptom—without fail—is death. It’s an allergy we’ll never be rid of; but with the blood of Christ’s sacrifice, it becomes an allergy that doesn’t have to claim our lives. Whether or not you allow it to, however, is up to you.

Jeremy Lallier is a baptized member of the Church of God and enjoys discovering how and why things work, especially when it comes to God's way of life.