Good News And The Bad

Here is one of the old "good news‑bad news" stories. Have you heard it?

One beautiful day, a pilot was flying his plane. That's good!

Suddenly, he ran out of gas. That's bad!

But he had a second tank, so he switched over. That's good!

But that tank was empty too. That's bad!

So he had to bail out. It was O.K. He had his parachute. That's good!

But the parachute didn't open. That's bad!

He looked down, and saw that he was falling towards a hay stack. That's good!

But there was a pitch fork in the middle of it. That's bad!

He missed the pitch fork. That's good!

But, he missed the hay stack too! (author unknown)

Does this remind you a bit of the Christian Gospel? God loves us. That's good. But mankind doesn't really love God. That's bad. God sent his son to live and to die for us. That's good. But we just can't seem to understand it. That's bad.

In Matt. 5:48, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said, "You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Suddenly the good news becomes the bad news, because we know we cannot do it. If our job is to imitate Jesus, then how discouraging. If the gospel requires that we be like this perfect Son of God, then this is bad news.

However, with further study, we find that the scripture tense is future. The word "be" is actually "become". It is a partial demand for the present, but it is also a promise for the future. We recognize the impossibility of perfection now, but it is a call of our Lord towards something better.

The apostle Paul said, "I press on towards the goal." Christian perfection is that state of attainment, which is just beyond our present attainment. In this life, the Christian does not "arrive". But he or she should always be "arriving". If we can be kind, we could always be a bit kinder. If we are friendly, we can always be friendlier. We can be good, but we could also be better.

Christian perfection suggests that our virtue must never be fractional. Our forgiveness must never be half‑hearted. Our mercy must always go "the second mile".

It is not easy to be a good Christian. That's the bad side. But the Christian seems to be the only kind of being who is vibrating with the good vibrations of the universe. That's the eternal "good side" of it.