Those seven words—“Jesus can do what Buddha can’t do”—have danced in my mind for weeks now. That’s because I first heard them on the lips of a Buddhist monk.
I’ll tell you the story.
One sweltering Cambodian afternoon, Marin and I, along with our Christian brother and translator, Yi, struck up a conversation with a middle-aged man named Niet who was reclining in his hammock beneath the suspended floor of his house. One thing you will notice about Cambodia is that there aren’t very many people over fifty years old. Millions of Niet’s contemporaries were brutally exterminated by Pol Pot and his regime in the 1970’s. Niet was one of the fortunate survivors.
In the course of the conversation, Niet mentioned that he had been a Buddhist monk from 1987-1995. We were intrigued; and so, not being at all opposed to engaging in a little bit of monkery, we asked if we could return to learn more about his religion and to share about ours. He happily agreed.
To say that our ensuing conversations with Niet were fascinating would be an understatement. For hours on end, we would respectfully bombard Niet with questions about his beliefs, and he would return the favor. Regular topics of discussion included the life of Buddha, the life of Christ, the Bible, the origins of the universe, and the Trinity. In many areas we found ourselves in agreement.
But then our paths diverged when it came to the all-important question of salvation. “How does a person get to heaven?” we asked Niet. His perspective seemed to make a good deal of sense: obey Buddha’s five central commands—don’t kill (animals or humans), don’t consume addictive substances, don’t steal, don’t gossip/lie, don’t commit sexual immorality—and if in the end your merits outweigh your sins, you will go to heaven.
Contrary to what one might think, Buddha did not proclaim himself to be god, nor did he think he could save anyone. But many Buddhists believe that Buddha pointed others to the path by which they could put an end their suffering and save themselves through their good deeds. This is the basic tenet of Karma: “Do good, get good; do bad, get bad.”
As it turned out, we weren’t so different—Niet and I. You see, for the first eighteen years of my life I believed I would go to heaven because I was really good at keeping the rules. But then our youth pastor said, “It’s not what you do for God that counts; it’s what Jesus did for you.” In the months and years that followed, I learned that although I could never fully keep God’s Law, the Lord Jesus Christ kept the Law perfectly in my stead. And then He paid the penalty for sin that the Law demanded. When I trusted in Christ, His righteous record was given to me as a gift, so that I might be blameless in the sight of God the Father. He took my condemnation; I received His commendation! Now that I am set free from the Law and its penalty, I now obey God not out of fear and duty, but out of love. I obey Him not in order that He will love me, but precisely because He already loves me! And so, as I have heard it put well, Karma says, “Do good, get good.” But Christianity says, “Get good, do good.”
We explained this good news to Niet. And that is when he came to the conclusion that made my jaw drop: “Jesus can do what Buddha can’t do.”
It’s not like Niet received Christ on the spot. (Please pray for him!) But I think he was beginning to understand that what sets Christianity apart from every other form of religion I know is the scandal of grace—that we are saved, not by works of our own, but by Christ alone.
Fast forward two weeks with me. I was sitting outside our hostel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, eating a one-dollar omelet over rice and hoping to spend some time in seclusion. But the Holy Spirit had other plans. He poked me in the ribs and moved me to pray for the tourist who was sipping a latte three seats to the right. In no time I found myself immersed in an incredible conversation. Roger was a New Zealander who was born into a nominally Christian home in England. He believed in a God who was loving and forgiving. He prayed every day that God would forgive him. But at the end of the day he believed that if you were a good person, you would go to heaven; and if you were a bad person, you would go to hell. He felt he was a good person but still entertained a lot of doubt. I asked him who he believed Jesus was. He maintained that Jesus was “a great man,” but wasn’t sure why He came. I felt for this man. Even though he believed in God, as long as he was trusting in his own righteousness, he had no place for Jesus in his life.
Fascinating, isn’t it? These two men—Niet and Roger—are separated by the widest possible cultural, religious, and geographical gulfs. One is from the East, the other from the West. One is culturally Buddhist, the other culturally Christian. But when the dust settles, they believe precisely the same thing: they don’t need Jesus, because they can save themselves on the basis of their own merits.
At the beginning of the day, the religions of the world might put on different colored clothing; but at the end of the day, they share one thing in common: fragile people trying to rescue themselves from their perceived problems by their own power.
Can you relate? Have you ever felt like all your tireless religious efforts just weren’t “good enough”? Have you ever wondered where you stand with God?
The good news—the greatest possible news—is that Jesus came to do what Buddha could not do. Jesus came to do what Niet and Roger could not do. For that matter, He came to do what you and I and no one else could do. He lived the perfect life, and died the perfect death, in order that we by His death might live forever.
My friend: are you trusting in works of your own, or in Christ alone?
Marin, Niet, and I
