Decision by Design

This is a follow up to yesterday's post about the idea of Christian Karma and the Biblical teaching of sowing and reaping.


None of us can deny that the principle of sowing and reaping is both a biblical truth and a practical one. I do not think you're going to find a farmer who plants lettuce to grow tomatoes. So, let us establish up front the the relationship between sowing and reaping is a truth. You will sow and you will reap. The real meat of this principle comes in the time and events that occur in between.

The concept of Karma can be divided into two categories, it is either completely by chance, a roll of the dice, or it is a default. Either I have a 50/50 chance of getting back whatever I put into the universe, or I have a 100% chance of getting back EXACTLY what I put out into the universe. The idea that my life's actions somehow float out into the air and cosmically I affect my future either positively or negatively, in my opinion, is both arrogant and asinine.

I don't think that this correctly represents the concept of sowing and reaping. It is not decision by dice, or by default, it is decision by design. A design for our betterment and future. God is the ultimate sovereign authority, omnipresent and omniscient, and it is His will and power that guide the law of the seed. It is also his character that both effect and enforce His laws.

In a world devoid of the love and intervention of God, it would be up to the dice or the default to decide what our future would hold. BUT we do not live in that world. We live in a world created, sustained, and affected by a loving Creator. And it is His character that enforces and effects this law in three distinct ways:

1. His Justice... God's justice allows us to reap exactly what we sow. Good or bad. Sinful or Holy. His justice insures that the outcome of any situation is exactly proportionate to the origin.

2. His Mercy... God's mercy allows us to NOT reap everything that we sow. Christ's death on the cross of Calvary insured for all of us that the wages of sin, that we have rightfully earned, will not be attributed to us. But His mercy extends further into our daily lives and relationships, protecting us from some of the wild oats or weeds that we can sown.

3. His Grace... God's grace allows us to reap that which we HAVE NOT sown. We have been granted access to the Heavenly Kingdom, Holy Spirit, and the Heart of God. None of this we deserve or could have earned. It is only by His grace that we have this harvest in our lives, and His grace extends in our daily lives just as His mercy does.


Yes, we both sow and reap in our lives, but the final outcome of what we reap from what we have sown is not by our own power or strength, but the Decision by Design of God's hands at work.