The concept of karma has morphed from its roots in Eastern religion and has become part of Western culture, and I find that even some Christians have come to accept it. Karma has more to it than “what goes around comes around.” It is part of the belief in reincarnation, where what a person does in this life determines not only their potential happiness or sorrow here, but their lot in their supposed future lives as well. Such a belief is like a prison from which a person can never escape, because our sin nature would keep us from ever overcoming our “fate.” Thank God for his grace! While the Bible promises that what we sow we will reap, (Gal. 6:7), God has not given us what we deserve because of Christ’s sacrifice in our place.
Job’s friend Zophar sounds like a believer in karma, when he suggests that when bad things happen to people it is because they are evil. We can hear the subtle suggestion that Job must have done something to deserve what has happened to him. Job points out that whether people are known as good or evil they all die, and whatever wealth or power they have attained is lost. This passage could be very depressing if we believed in karma.
But there is hope, living hope in Christ! From our perspective as New Testament believers, we understand that everyone on this earth dies, because all have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard (Rom. 3:23). But the next verse of that chapter reminds us that we have been given grace through Jesus’ death, and later, in Romans 6, we read that the gift of God is eternal life. We are not imprisoned, doomed to a cycle of death and reincarnation which can never achieve perfection. Instead, our perfect Savior has offered us his life, his righteousness, and a place in his coming kingdom.
“Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:27–28, NIV).
Jim Jensen, Prophetstown, Ill.
