God loves us. (John 3:14; 1 John 4:8-10).

Therefore, God does not keep a record of our wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5). Nor does he apply the rigid rules of karma to us. (Isaiah 55:6-9; Job 38-41).

The LORD our God “does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103:10).

The Way of Jesus is the same as the Way of the LORD our God. It is the Way of Love.

Therefore, Jesus does not keep a record of our wrongs. Nor does he apply the rigid rules of karma to us.

Jesus does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

To be sure, Jesus warns us that if we do not put into practice the Wise Teachings of his Sermon on the Mount—if we do not follow the Way of Jesus—there inevitably will be bad consequences. (Matthew 7:24-27).

These bad consequences are caused by our bad choices. (Unlike some bad things that happen through no fault of our own. (Job 38-41; Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 22:1-31; Matthew 5:11-12; John 9:1-3; 19:16-18)).

Through his life and teachings, Jesus repeatedly revealed that the LORD our God will spare no effort to overcome the bad consequences of our bad choices.

Jesus said that he “came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10). The Gospels are full of examples from Jesus’s life.

To prove he was the Messiah, Jesus summarized these examples of how he was seeking and saving the lost: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Matthew 11:5).

Of course, the best example of how Jesus came to seek and to save the lost was his crucifixion and resurrection. (John 3:16-17; 10:10-11).

To reveal how much Jesus loves to seek and to save the lost, Jesus taught three parables: the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7), the parable of the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10), and the parable of the lost sons (Luke 15:32).

In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd spares no effort to find the lost sheep and save it.  Then the shepherd spares no effort to carry the heavy sheep back home.

In the parable of the lost coin, the woman spares no effort to find the lost silver coin. She lights a lamp in her dark house, sweeps and sweeps the floor, and searches carefully until she finds her lost coin.

In the parable of the lost sons, the father brings shame upon himself by running to welcome his younger son.

In that culture, men never ran. It was a breach of decorum that was beneath their dignity.

The entire village would have been shocked at the shame the father suffered by running in order to spare his penniless son the shame of walking through the village. Indeed, in that culture, the villagers might have killed the guilty son for squandering the wealth of his father and, indirectly, the wealth of the village.

Later that day, the father again brought shame on himself by committing a breach of decorum. He went outside from the celebration for his younger son to try to placate his older son.

This other “lost son” was shaming his father by challenging his father’s decision to welcome the younger son. In that culture, it was totally unacceptable for a son to become angry and refuse to obey his father—especially when his father was further shamed by having to plead with his disobedient son in front of the whole village.

These parables all reveal why Jesus endured the shame of the cross to save us.

Love.

Love strong enough to justify any sacrifice to seek and to save us.

Love strong enough to recognize our great value, even though we have gone astray and are lost.

Too often, people feel they are deplorable and worthless because they have gone astray and are lost.

Too often, people feel justified in mistreating other people who they view as deplorable and worthless because they have gone astray and are lost.

But no matter how far someone has strayed from the Way of Jesus, the value of that person has not diminished. They remain valuable, just as the sheep, the coin, and the sons remained valuable.

Each person retains their fundamental value as a person created in the image of God—regardless of how far they have strayed from God’s ways.

No matter how far we have strayed, we retain the image of the God who brings order out of chaos, discerns good from evil, and creates people who are good—who are very good. (Genesis 1:1-2:3).

No matter how much the work of our hands grows “thorns” (Genesis 3:17-19), the LORD God still loves us so much that he helps us. (Genesis 3:8-9,21; John 3:16-17; 10:10-11; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Ephesians 2:1-10; Titus 3:3-8; Philemon 1:8-21; 1 Peter 2:24-25).

No matter how much the help we desire to give to others empowers them to rule over us so that we can only generate good “offspring” through pain and suffering (Genesis 3:16), the LORD God still loves us so much that he helps us. (Genesis 3:8-9,21; John 3:16-17; 10:10-11; 2 Corinthians 5:17-22; Ephesians 2:1-10; Titus 3:3-8; Philemon 1:8-21; 1 Peter 2:24-25).

Therefore, we must treat people the way that we want to be treated. We must not keep a record of their wrongs. They are not trapped by karma. They are saved by love’s amazing grace.

Love overcomes karma—in this life and in the one to come. Because love “keeps no record of wrongs.” Instead, love “always protects, always trusts, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:5,7).

No matter how far we have strayed from loving the LORD our God and from loving other people, we know that we are not doomed by karma to suffer for our wrongdoing in this life and in the one to come.

How do we know this? Because God is love. He spares no effort to seek and to save all those who have gone astray and are lost.

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Many of my thoughts about the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons are stimulated by books of Dr. Rev. Kenneth E. Bailey. He spent decades teaching the parables of Jesus in the Middle East, thereby learning to see them in the cultural context of the Middle East when Jesus taught and when the Gospels were written.

To learn more about how love overcomes karma, please read my blog “Love Overcomes Karma”.

To read how mercy and forgiveness build a civilization that is good, please read my blog “Building Houses on Rock: Mercy and Forgiveness”.

To read how mercy was used to heal their Promised Lands by David, Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and King Alfred the Great, please read the chapter “David Establishes the Work of His Hands with Mercy” in my book Healing the Promised Land, at pages 45-55.