Does God Cause Karma?

A young couple with a very troubled marriage came to me for counseling. She had hurt her husband very deeply through her unfaithfulness.  She readily confessed her sin and was repentant.  The husband on the other hand made a statement which I have heard frequently.  He said, "I am a good person.  I do right.  Why did God allow this to happen to me?"   I gently replied, "That kind of thinking is not Christianity. It's karma."  Karma is the false belief that doing good will return good to me. 

I have found that many of us believe God operates in the realm of karma. Like this young husband, we believe doing good insures God will reward us with good circumstances.   If we believe that, then our view of who God is will disappoint us.  Obeying God is not a guarantee of good circumstances.  Don't get me wrong, there are blessings in obeying God but that does not guarantee good circumstances from God.  The gospel of grace promises us that God loves us when things are good AND when things are bad.  Roman 8:39 reminds us that nothing can separate us from God's love which is "in Christ Jesus." Where are we who believe in Jesus?  We are "in Christ Jesus". Therefore, we are always in the middle of God's love when life is good and when life is bad whether we feel it or not.  He loves us!  Would you by faith tell Him you believe that right now?
 Be Free in Christ,                                               
Mark Maulding
President and Founder
Grace Life International

Does God Punish Us for Our Sins?

Is the God we believe in truly the real God? Through the years, I have observed many people who leave their faith in God and the church they were a part of. Yet, in many cases they are not leaving the true God but a false god they have created in their mind. There are misperceptions of who God really is. One misperception is that God punishes His children when they sin. I have heard this one many times and I used to believe it myself! Yet, our punishment was taken in full by Jesus on the cross.

In 1 John 2:2, the word "propitiation" means the wrath of God the Father towards our sin was completely satisfied in the death of Christ on the cross. Since that is true, difficult circumstances are NOT God's punishment on us. We have been forgiven for all of our sins and will not be punished for them.

Those who do not have faith in Christ will be punished for their sins after their life on this earth is over. But we are focusing on believers right now.

That does not mean that believers in Christ do not have consequences when we sin. For example, if we are a believer in Christ and we rob a bank. Jesus died for our sin of stealing. So God will not punish us but we will go to jail! A friend of mine said it this way. God does not punish us for our sins but our sins sometimes punish us.

He does discipline His children according to Hebrew 12 but this is our Father's correction to get us back on track, not to punish us. In fact, His discipline is an act of His love for us. So the next time we begin to think that God is punishing us, we need to remember that the cross of Jesus debunks that misperception of God and how He treats us. He loves us!