Forget Karma, Find Forgiveness

Karma
:the force created by a person's actions that is believed in Hinduism and Buddhism to determine what that person's next life will be like

: the force created by a person's actions that some people believe causes good or bad things to happen to that person

I was pondering karma the other day.  I would say that 99% of the time when I hear people speak of karma they are referring to the hope that someone that wronged them gets what they deserve. Some people ascribe to karma as a type of moral code, hoping that if they live well they will get their reward in this life or the next.  As a Christian there is no room in my life to believe in such things as karma. I believe in the moral code passed down by God and praise God he doesn't ascribe to karma or we would all be doomed!  We do reap what we sow, we have the choice to spend our lives serving and honoring God, and there are rewards for that in this life and in heaven, or we can reject God and spend eternity separated from him.  Our salvation has nothing to do with our works.  No matter how good we think we are we will never be good enough to deserve eternity in heaven.

Romans 3:23

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

Let all of that sink in for a moment.  When we play the karma card hoping that someone who hurt us will be punished, someone that did wrong we feel deserves to get what they have coming.  Then think that because we are "good" people that our karma is good we totally deceive ourselves.  Praise God he doesn't use karma against us, we would all have miserable lives!  The truth is that even on our best day we still all fall short, we are all sinners.  We cant measure up to the standard put forth by God.  I certainly don't want my past mistakes to determine the rest of my life.  I have wronged people that I love, I have wronged strangers, if I were to be a believer in karma I would curl up in a ball right now and give up because I have a lot of punishment coming my way!  I am so thankful that God knew we would fall short, that we would sin, that we would fail, and he responded with love by offering his Son to pay the price for our sin on the cross.  This, however,  does not excuse the believer to act how ever we please.

Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

We are to live according to the guidelines set forth in the Bible, to try our very best to stay on His right path.  We will fall from time to time, but the question is how we recover from the fall.  Do we get up, seek forgiveness and run back to God or do we let the failing pull us away.  Our lives should be lived trying each and every day to draw nearer to the Lord, to seek His will over our lives, to become the person we were meant to be as we strip away the flesh and put on the new man he has made us.  God is jealous for us and He is also patient because he loves us and doesn't want to lose a single one of us to eternity apart from him.  That is truly what hell is, is the absence of God, it is the absence of love, it is the absence of good.  In hell the lost will know that God exists, if they questioned that in this life, and they will know that he is all they ever wanted but they will spend eternity apart from him.  There are no words to describe what that will be like, but in God giving us free will to decide if we choose Him or not he will honor that even to the grave.  He will never force us to be near to him if we choose not to be.  Hell is a personal choice, you either want fellowship with God for eternity or you don't.  God wants every single one of us to choose him.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

God loves us, even while we are sinners.  He wants us to return to him and so he sent his Son to die for each and every one of us.  Even those who reject him.  We must choose if we will accept the free gift of salvation.  Before I truly understood it all, I thought that salvation was simply saying a prayer asking the Lord into my heart and I was set for life.  Past, present, and future sins forgiven.  I then carried on in my own desires resting in this false understanding.  I love the way my pastor put it this Sunday, I will paraphrase. 

The debate is not "once saved always saved" vs "once saved salvation can be lost."  The answer is once TRULY saved always saved.

That is it right there.  The truth is that when you truly come to salvation, when you truly understand that giving your heart to Jesus means giving up your life.  It means a total surrender to his will.  It means freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.  It means that you let the Holy Spirit guide you and change you.  It means that when you feel conviction you need to seek repentance and make the changes necessary to remove more and more of your "flesh" so that you can become the person God meant for you to be.  When you truly come to salvation it becomes impossible to stay in your sin.  The truth is revealed to you and you have to choose to either reject the sinful desires or reject God.  If you are truly saved the idea of rejecting God becomes unthinkable and leaves you only the option to reject sin.  When God got a hold of me, when he really opened my eyes to the salvation he was offering there was simply no way I could do anything but run to him.  I had to change everything about my life, I had to turn my back on all of my sin.  I had to choose Gods will over my life and I had to trust him to make beauty out of the ashes I had left behind.  It wasn't easy, it still isn't easy, but I can tell you that I am never going to go back to the person I once was.  God didn't leave me on the path of destruction, he chased me, tackled me, pinned me down until I repented, and then he carried me.  He still carries me when I struggle, he still walks with me when the trials hit, he is never far from me.

Ephesians 2:8

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.

Praise God, karma is not a real principal on which we are judged.  Praise God, nothing we can do in this life can separate us from his love. Praise God, he loves us enough to wait for us and he offers us forgiveness we don't deserve if only we will repent.

Romans 8:38

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Forget karma, find forgiveness.  Offer forgiveness.  When you hold onto hurt that another has caused you, when you refuse to forgive you only hurt yourself.  Forgiveness if your way of saying that wrong done to you will not have any power over you.  We need to be quick to forgive if we also want to be forgiven.  Forgiveness does not excuse the actions of other, but it does set you free from the bondage unforgiveness can cause in your own life. I have an easy time forgiving others because I understand that we are all human and make mistakes.  This is easy for me mostly because I've made a lot of mistakes and needed a lot of forgiveness.  I do, however, have a hard time forgiving myself, and that is an area of forgiveness that God is teaching me about.  It is equally important to forgive yourself when you mess up because that is the only way to move forward.

Matthew 6:14-15

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Psalms 103:12

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Daniel 9:9

The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him;

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Mark 11:25

And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. "

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!