Karma and Grace

“Aren’t all religions just different versions of the same thing?”  It’s a question that gets raised frequently.  We’re all trying to get to God.  We’re all headed to the top of the mountain.  We’re just taking different paths.  It can be hard to argue with this logic, especially when claiming that your religion is the right one comes across as arrogant or even judgmental.  But there is a big difference between following Jesus and following other world religions.  Most every religion in the world operates on karma.  Karma is the idea that what you do now will come back to you in the future.  We reap what we sow.  But being in Christ is different.  Rather than operating on karma, life in Christ operates on grace.

As people who belong to Jesus, we don’t reap what we sow.  We reap what God has sown.  We lie in a bed that God has made for us, rather than one we’ve made for ourselves.  Blessing and joy and eternal life are not rewards for something we have done (i.e., karma).  They are gifts because of something God has done (i.e., grace).  It should be noted that we can easily turn Christianity into another system of karma.  Go to church, tithe, do spiritual disciplines, and you will get eternal life and be blessed.  But the true center of our faith is about grace.  We trust God for everything we need and receive it as a gift, not a reward.  Karma offers us fairness and the illusion of control.  Grace offers us the gift of eternal life.