(This short article is intended for five groups: Christians who are prone to limit God’s grace to those who believe exactly as they do; Christians whose predominant images of God are punitive and judgmental in nature; Christians who are confused regarding the nature of grace; non-Christians who mistakenly assume the Christian faith is all about a punitive and judgmental God and have sense enough to reject such a sick religion; and those both inside and outside the church who are drawn to the concept of karma.)
The New Testament, especially Paul, has a lot to say about grace. We talk about grace in church all the time. We sing about amazing grace. We profess that we are saved by grace. The following is the definition of grace I heard as a child: “Grace is the unmerited favor of God.” Grace is a lot more than such a definition communicates, but undeserved favor and love are at least a major part of its meaning.
If we actually thought deeply about that definition, we might realize that grace is the opposite of karma. Karma basically says that what goes around comes around. You get what you deserve, whether it be something good or bad. You have to work off the bad in your life or the bad you’ve done in previous lives. Karma assumes a “tit for tat” God, a “tit for tat” relationship with God and with others, and a “tit for tat” foundation built into the design of the world.
Grace, on the other hand, says that we don’t get what we deserve. As many Evangelicals are quick to point out (but don’t always recognize the implications of their observations), Paul wrote that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In other words, we all deserve judgment and condemnation. Grace says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us and that God loves us unconditionally, indiscriminately, sacrificially, and eternally. With God we don’t get what we deserve. We get what we don’t deserve—which is grace.
With such an understanding of grace as it relates to karma, we need to draw a distinction between judgment and consequences. When, out of the freedom God gives us, we make choices that are evil or destructive, there may be consequences for those choices. If one smokes three packs of cigarettes a day for forty years and develops lung cancer, that disease is a consequence of a choice and action, not a judgment from God. If I drive recklessly and wreck my car killing passengers in another car, their deaths are a consequence of my reckless driving, not a judgment from God. If I pursue a self-centered and loveless life and find myself lonely and depressed as I enter my last years, I have only myself to blame. Many times, we suffer the consequences of our choices and deeds. But those consequences are not the result of any action or decision on God’s part. And even as we suffer those consequences, we may become open to a healing and saving grace as we discover, perhaps for the first time in our lives, how much we are actually loved by God and how that experience can transform us into better and more joyful children of our Creator. Many times I’ve seen that happen in people’s lives, but I do not believe for one second that God sent suffering or tragedies to “teach them a lesson” or to draw them closer to their Maker. God is a Friend of life and can only act out of love because God is love. Manipulative judgments and punishments are impossible for a God whose eternal and unchanging nature is compassionate love.
The Good News of Jesus Christ is the opposite of karma. We see such undeserved grace repeatedly in the New Testament. For example, Zacchaeus, who had cheated his own people and was collaborating with the oppressive Romans, was the recipient of incredible grace and joy as Jesus visited him in his own home and called him a “son of Abraham.” In other words, Jesus announced that Zacchaeus also belonged to the house of Israel and had a place in the heart of God. And Saul, who persecuted the church and plotted suffering and death for followers of Jesus, became Paul as he experienced a love so profound and healing that he dedicated his life to sharing that grace with gentiles whom he previously assumed were beyond the scope of God’s concern. And we see other examples in history such as John Newton who captained a slave ship until he experienced Amazing Grace and wrote a hymn to celebrate such undeserved love. Newton said that he knew two great truths as he came to the end of his life: “I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior.” The New Testament assures us that God’s grace is greater than our sin. That Good New is our only hope. And such grace also shows how rigid, legalistic, exhausting, and unjust karma is. Why surrender such Good News for a belief that negates everything wonderful about what God has done and continues to do in Christ?
Grace means we don’t get what we deserve, and I am wondrously joyful about that kind of love. I hope you are too. And I also hope that none of us, having experienced such underserved and amazing favor and love, will begrudge God’s gift of grace to others. That would be the height of impertinence, ingratitude, and hypocrisy. Such an attitude would reveal that God has wasted divine grace on us and that we know nothing about the God Jesus came to reveal. But celebrating the gifts of divine grace to others and even becoming conduits of such grace would demonstrate that we really and finally get it: God is love both now and forever and Her love is for everyone—no exceptions—not even you and me. Thanks be to God!
