"As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
Here plainly all the world is saved by the Karma of Christ.
Now Dr. Kuenen, whose main proposition is that Christianity emerged from Judaism alone, should tell us how Paul got this idea. The priests and the Levites were the sole interpreters of the law, and they had settled that a certain Hebrew had so broken that law that it was necessary to execute him. And now another Hebrew proclaims that the righteousness of this man is so great that he can bestow the "free gift of life" to "all men." Would not Caiaphas have called the second Hebrew out of his mind.
But St. Paul was a Pharisee, and as a Pharisee he knew that the Pharisees that he tried to convert believed that nothing but blood could wipe out sin. In the person of Christ he mixed up the two ideas.
"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." (Rom. iii. 25.)
But according to our first quotation, Christ had already saved "all men" by his righteousness alone. Plainly St. Paul, who viewed the Old Testament as "allegory," "carnal ordinances," "beggarly elements," and so on, never meant his trope about Adam's sin to be taken too literally.
PARABLES.
Buddha taught in parables. I will give one or two. The reader is referred to my "Popular Life of Buddha" for some very beautiful ones.
THE PRODIGAL SON.