Believing in karma (also called "What goes around, comes around") is one of the oldest traditions, in fact, Job's friends accused him of wrongdoing and asserted he was only getting what he deserved, maybe even less. In antiquity, people assumed that God rewarded good and punished evil in an immediate payback or recompense. Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People and questioned God's goodness whether He was unjust in allowing evil to happen to good people.
His premise, of course, was that there are good people; the Bible says there is none good, no not one. Jesus said only God is good! It turned out that God is too deep to explain Himself, too kind to be cruel, and to knowledgeable and wise to be wrong or make a mistake. God knows what He's doing and works all things together for our good. These are coterminous events and not fortuitous at all, God's providence is able to superintend all events to His glory, which is His ultimate goal in all of history.
Why did Jesus suffer then? He was suffering in our stead and on our behalf; He didn't deserve it and completely volunteered for it: He said not to weep for Him but for ourselves (we are the sinners that need forgiveness!). Mercy is not getting what we deserve and Christ paid the price so we wouldn't have to on a debt we couldn't pay. Grace is when we get what we don't deserve, can't earn, and can never repay in all eternity. The cross makes possible both mercy and grace as the ultimate expression of Christ's love and compassion for mankind.
If karma were true, why did Christ have to suffer? He was innocent and certainly suffered more than anyone in history. It wasn't the nails that kept Him on the cross--He could've come down at will or called 12 legions of angels--but the love in His heart that kept Him to the cross. The weeping women on the Via Dolorosa (on the way to Calvary) were puzzled as to why Jesus told them to weep for themselves and not Him--He knew what He was getting into.
When Jesus was teaching they asked Him who sinned: Was it the man born blind or his parents? Jesus had to explain that it was unto the glory of God. God knows what He is doing and will turn evil into good. He was able to turn and predestine the most diabolical act in history (cf. Acts 2:23; 4:28) into the crux of history or the most wonderful thing ever done on man's behalf--our salvation! Joseph said in Gen. 50:20 that even though his brothers meant evil, God meant it for good. We are all God's vessels, it's just that some of us are vessels of honor and some of dishonor.
In the Eastern traditions they also believe in karma and cannot reconcile the suffering in the world--they think that if someone is suffering, that is their karma and leave him alone to suffer what he deserves. When the Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot regime stranded 300,000 refugees in a no-man's--land (known as the "killing fields"), it was Christians who came to the rescue, not Buddhists or Hindus. This is known as the exact-reward concept and that everyone gets what he deserves in life as payback. Buddha taught man to be an island unto himself. He said you are not to interfere with another person's karma.
But the Bible says, "he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities" in Psalm 103:10. We too readily say to God when something happens: "What did I do to deserve this?" But adversity, discipline, suffering, and trials will always come to believers and Christ was honest enough to warn us of the rough road ahead--it will be no bed of roses.
But adversity is meant to build character and Christlikeness: In a proclamation of faith, Job said, "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10, ESV). We don't build character through an easy life but through challenges and experience. It is not what happens to us but in us. The same trial affects different people in different ways: "The same sun melts the butter, hardens the clay." We are not to question God and judge Him, but He us--we answer to Him! Christ's passion debunks karma. Soli Deo Gloria!
His premise, of course, was that there are good people; the Bible says there is none good, no not one. Jesus said only God is good! It turned out that God is too deep to explain Himself, too kind to be cruel, and to knowledgeable and wise to be wrong or make a mistake. God knows what He's doing and works all things together for our good. These are coterminous events and not fortuitous at all, God's providence is able to superintend all events to His glory, which is His ultimate goal in all of history.
Why did Jesus suffer then? He was suffering in our stead and on our behalf; He didn't deserve it and completely volunteered for it: He said not to weep for Him but for ourselves (we are the sinners that need forgiveness!). Mercy is not getting what we deserve and Christ paid the price so we wouldn't have to on a debt we couldn't pay. Grace is when we get what we don't deserve, can't earn, and can never repay in all eternity. The cross makes possible both mercy and grace as the ultimate expression of Christ's love and compassion for mankind.
If karma were true, why did Christ have to suffer? He was innocent and certainly suffered more than anyone in history. It wasn't the nails that kept Him on the cross--He could've come down at will or called 12 legions of angels--but the love in His heart that kept Him to the cross. The weeping women on the Via Dolorosa (on the way to Calvary) were puzzled as to why Jesus told them to weep for themselves and not Him--He knew what He was getting into.
When Jesus was teaching they asked Him who sinned: Was it the man born blind or his parents? Jesus had to explain that it was unto the glory of God. God knows what He is doing and will turn evil into good. He was able to turn and predestine the most diabolical act in history (cf. Acts 2:23; 4:28) into the crux of history or the most wonderful thing ever done on man's behalf--our salvation! Joseph said in Gen. 50:20 that even though his brothers meant evil, God meant it for good. We are all God's vessels, it's just that some of us are vessels of honor and some of dishonor.
In the Eastern traditions they also believe in karma and cannot reconcile the suffering in the world--they think that if someone is suffering, that is their karma and leave him alone to suffer what he deserves. When the Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot regime stranded 300,000 refugees in a no-man's--land (known as the "killing fields"), it was Christians who came to the rescue, not Buddhists or Hindus. This is known as the exact-reward concept and that everyone gets what he deserves in life as payback. Buddha taught man to be an island unto himself. He said you are not to interfere with another person's karma.
But the Bible says, "he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities" in Psalm 103:10. We too readily say to God when something happens: "What did I do to deserve this?" But adversity, discipline, suffering, and trials will always come to believers and Christ was honest enough to warn us of the rough road ahead--it will be no bed of roses.
But adversity is meant to build character and Christlikeness: In a proclamation of faith, Job said, "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10, ESV). We don't build character through an easy life but through challenges and experience. It is not what happens to us but in us. The same trial affects different people in different ways: "The same sun melts the butter, hardens the clay." We are not to question God and judge Him, but He us--we answer to Him! Christ's passion debunks karma. Soli Deo Gloria!
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