Spiritual Survival Guide
2: Read This If You’re Confused About Faith
must have lived right—either now or in a past life! You’re on the bot- tom? Once again, you deserve it. Not-so-good past lives, I guess! Feeling crushed by life circumstances? Too bad, but you know: fair’s fair. Some- where in the past, you did this to yourself. The idea of karma is hard to shake. In fact, the Bible itself wrestles with this payback question over and over. Check out chapters 4 and 34 in the book of Job: when Job’s life came crashing down, his friends told him, “You must have deserved this. These things don’t just happen. ” A karma contingent came to Jesus once (check out the story in John 9:1-7). They asked him, “So, Jesus, is that guy over there blind because he sinned—or because his parents sinned?” Jesus told them, “Don’t blame the victims; it doesn’t work that way,” and then he went ahead and healed the man. Later (check out Luke 13:1-5), Jesus spoke to his inner circle about people killed in a tragic accident. He told them that tragedies have nothing to do with payback. It’s not about who deserves what. That’s not what’s going on. Everything Jesus ever revealed in his teaching, and especially in his cross, is grace —us getting wonderful things we don’t deserve, and God absorbing the awful things we do deserve. Grace is about God having a soft spot for failures and losers and screw-ups and sinners and addicts and convicts—for all of us who find ourselves on the bottom, and for all of us who put ourselves on the bottom. There’s something missing, something out of place, about karma. And there’s something deep in our Christian experience, something at the heart of the Christian message, that turns karma on its head. At the heart of Christian experience and identity stands Jesus Christ. And at the heart of Jesus Christ stands the victory of God’s grace. Grace is the
reality that trumps everything . Karma included. Karma says that life is a “task” to be done and wages to be earned. God’s grace in Jesus says that life is a “gift” to be received, opened, enjoyed, and given thanks for. Grace says that because God himself has broken into our world and broken the vicious cycle, history is now going some- where new, somewhere wonderful. Grace picks up where justice inevita- bly fails. Clean slate. Fresh start. Debt-free. Karma says that you are what you make yourself. Grace says that even when we make a total mess of ourselves, God is there to remake us into something new. The Bible says that in Christ we are being remade into a
new creation (check out 2 Corinthians 5:17). Karma says, Earn it. Grace says, Just receive it.
We’ve tried to fix ourselves, to play by the rules of cause and effect, but because we’re addicted to sin and slaves to selfishness, we can’t do it. Thank God we have someone able to fix us. And that’s God himself. Thank God we’re not in control; thank God that he is. Grace is all about God—in the person of Jesus, through the miracle of a love we can’t comprehend—flipping karma on its head, and bringing about a new world order, the kingdom of God. Grace is good news for those who have nothing of their own to point to, for those who have nothing to boast of, for those who don’t deserve anything good. With all due respect to karma, grace rules. Grace is God’s first word, God’s main word, God’s best word, and God’s final word. Grace is amazing . And grace is meant for people exactly like us.
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