In the old TV show, “Maude,” Bea Arthur’s character had a saying she used when someone did or said something she didn’t like. When the event happened, Maude would fix the person with a hard gaze and say, “God’s going to get you for that.”
We live in a world and society where we believe that what goes around, comes around. We emphasize a life that says we are rewarded for our good deeds, and punished for our bad deeds.
We are beginning to embrace the idea of “karma.”
Karma is a neat idea. The idea that we get what we deserve gives us a sense of justice and fairness. We were raised on the idea of playing fair, of doing the right thing. And so, karma fits into the norms of our society. Pick yourself up by your own bootstraps; earn your own way. The rugged individual, and the sense of decency and fair play.
The only problem is that karma is incompatible with the Bible and the message of grace and mercy.
Where Karma Comes From
Karma is an idea that is present in many Eastern religions, mostly from India. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism all claim a belief in it, as does Toaism. The premise of karma is difficult to get because the various schools of the various religions each have their own understanding, but the general concept of karma is that one’s actions and one’s intents dictate reward or punishment in rebirth. If a person does good things with good intentions, he or she will be rewarded in the next life; if the actions and/or intents were bad, the person would be punished in the next life. According to some schools, it also has a bearing on one’s present life.
Karma focuses on causality, ethics and rebirth. The causality believes the actions effect the current life. Ethics believes that every action has a consequence, either in the present or future life. Rebirth relates to the reincarnation of the person and the life they will be rewarded or punished with.
What the Bible Teaches
Like the Eastern religions, the Bible mentions rebirth, but not in the way Eastern religions do. The Eastern thought is rebirth as a new life after the current life is over—reincarnation. The Bible teaches a new birth as defined best in John 3. Jesus was approached one night by Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin. Nicodemus acknowledged Jesus as a teacher from God. Jesus’ response is, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (v.3). Confused by the answer, Nicodemus asks how it is possible to be born again. In response, Jesus told Nicodemus the birth into the kingdom is a spiritual birth, not a physical one. It is in this dialogue with Nicodemus that we find John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The spiritual rebirth is centered on a faith relationship with Jesus Christ, built on the acknowledgement and confession of our sinfulness and our need for Jesus’ saving actions of crucifixion and resurrection.
As for the possibility of being reincarnated, the Bible has a very short verse that says, “For it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27, KJV).
The Bible focuses on the spirituality of people, not the physical. This is not to say that the Bible eschews the material world, but that the emphasis is always on one’s relationship with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit, not on the physical world. Generally, the Bible contrasts the ways of the spirit and the way of the world, with the world representing that which is antithetical to God and His will. “No one can serve two masters. Either he will love the one or hate the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matthew 6:24). Equally, we cannot serve both God and the career, God and family, God and Church if career, family and/or church competes with God in our devotion.
The idea of good deeds brings good results into life is also antithetical to the Bible. The point of karma is, essentially, we control our own destinies, determining by our choices and actions how we will be rewarded or punished. The Bible, on the other hand, points out that no one is good enough to enter the kingdom of God or to determine their own destiny. No one has the right to stand before God and say, “You owe me. I earned this.” Instead, the Bible says,“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12).
Jesus said trying to overcome our sinfulness is impossible. “’I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ When the disciples heard this, they were astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:23-26).
The astonishment of the disciples centers on the then-popular belief that God blessed the righteous with riches (not unlike some of the concepts of karma). With Jesus’ words saying the rich can’t enter the kingdom, He’s telling them no one can enter the kingdom on their own. It is wholly dependent upon God’s grace and mercy. (And, by the way, the illustration of a camel going through the eye of a needle is a literal camel and a little needle. There never was a small gate in a city wall where a camel could crawl through on its knees only after it had been unladen of its burden. It’s a neat picture to depict a repentant sinner freed from the burden of sin, but it’s not true and it should be ignored.)
Grace and Mercy
Someone once defined “grace” as being given that which we do not deserve, while “mercy” is not receiving what we deserve. With the Bible stressing our sinfulness prevents us ever to earn the right to enter into a right relationship with God, there is a stress on grace and mercy. “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. . . For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:4, 8-10). We do what God has prepared for us to do because we love Him, not so we can get and stay on His good side.
God’s mercy spares us from the horrors of separation from God and judgment. God’s grace blesses us with a right relationship with Him through our faith in Christ. The emphasis on mercy and grace is central, from John 3:16 (God’s love so vast and the promise of eternal life through Christ) to Calvary and the empty tomb and in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, all by God’s activity in our lives. We receive this mercy and grace not because we’ve earned it (we can’t), but because God is loving and merciful.
Conclusion
We’ve only scratched the surface of the depths of grace and mercy, but hopefully enough has been given to whet the appetite, and has confirmed that there is no karma in the Bible. There is only grace, mercy and God’s great love.
© 2019 Glynn Beaty