Karma has taken the modern American worldview captive. Divested of its Hindu roots and multiple-lives timescale, it has become an accepted truth that your actions, both good and bad, will come back to you sometime in your life. It is assumed that the universe has a built-in justice system that operates morally much like a physical law. Although it may be a comforting doctrine to those on the receiving end of injustice, it falls terribly short of what the bible teaches.
The first issue is that karma reduces justice to an impersonal law of nature whereas the bible always leaves justice in the hands of a personal God. Look at what Paul says in Galatians:
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Karma cannot be mocked; it is only a force, indifferent to the offence and the offender. Biblically however, our actions have a direct impact upon God. We can please him, offend him, and we see in the above passage that expecting no reaction from God whatsoever is a form of mockery. Karma however makes avoiding negative consequences our primary motivation for righteousness and ignores our responsibility to God our creator.
Karma also does not leave enough room for the wickedness of humankind. By reducing life to a one-to-one formula we are left to believe that if nothing bad is happening to us, we must be doing everything right. Jesus dealt with a similar mindset in Luke 13:
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent,you will all likewise perish.”
Jesus explains here that our quality of living, or even the ease and timing of our death is no guarantee of right standing before God. In fact, horror of horrors, the bible recognizes that in this life the wicked will sometimes get off scot-free; liars will get wealthy, rapists will be undiscovered, mass-murders will die of old age but none of them will escape eternal justice (see Psalm 73). Jesus explains to the crowd that our sinfulness is so pervasive that we are all headed towards judgment and condemnation. In this regard, karma also implies that we could somehow atone for our sins by some amount of temporal suffering but as our sins are ultimately against an eternal God, eternal punishment alone will satisfy justice.
Finally and most importantly, karma does not allow for the grace of God. In spite of the fact that our sins are an offense to a personal God, and that they are rightly deserving of eternal justice, through God sending Jesus to die the death that we deserve, our punishment can be escaped. Jesus hanging on the cross shows the utter vanity of karma, as true and perfect righteousness suffered not only a shameful and horrendously painful death but also experienced the full wrath of God. Jesus not only suffered the punishment we deserved, but offers us the reward of eternal life that only he deserves. This great exchange, as Martin Luther called it, is diametrically opposed to karma in every way.
Karma cannot provide true justice, but God can. It cannot look at reality honestly, but the bible does. It cannot save you from what you deserve but Jesus will. Forsake karma, abandon it and walk away. I promise it won’t be offended.
