God Is Weird

Are you frugal enough to take batteries out of a energy-hogging machine and test them, in case they still have enough oomph to run something simpler, oh, say, a remote control or a small alarm clock?  I am.  I don't want to waste the batteries.  I buy them to do a job for me.  I don't value the batteries for their own selves, but only for the work I get out of them.

It seems that much of American Christendom believes that God's love is like a battery.  He gives us His love only so that He can put us to work serving Him.  His love is what's supposed to ignite us.  So then we wonder: If we don't do our work effectively, will He withdraw His love and His grace so that it's not wasted?  After all, that's what I do with batteries. 

But maybe, just maybe, God isn't like me.

The parables in the Gospels keep showing us that God is weird.  He doesn't do things the way we'd expect; He doesn't interact with us the way that we interact with each other.

In 1 Peter 3:18, we read that "Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust."

The just for the unjust???

That's weird.  That's not fair.  It doesn't seem right.

It's just plain wasteful.  Who would rescue unjust people by giving the Just One?

It's like He cares about us because of the love that pours forth out of His heart, and not because of some warped idea of using His love to manipulate us into doing what He wants.  No, that would be more like us people to do. 

The just for the unjust!