Breaking the Power of "Moralistic Religiosity"

This past week was the anniversary of the death of Rich Mullins[i]. I first heard of Rich Mullins from a Brennan Manning book entitled The Ragamuffin Gospel, and I first heard of Brennan Manning from a man none of you know by the name of Jerry.

Prior to his death Rich Mullins shared a testimony about a time he reluctantly listened to a Brennan Manning sermon in his truck. He recalls,

“I have attended church regularly since I was less than a week old. I’ve listened to sermons about virtue, sermons against vice. I have heard about money, time management, tithing, abstinence, and generosity. I’ve listened to thousands of sermons. But I could count on one hand the number that were a simple proclamation of the gospel of Christ. That proclamation is the message I heard that day. And it did what the gospel can’t help but do: It broke the power of mere ‘moralistic religiosity’ in my life and revived a deeper acceptance that had long ago withered in me.”[ii]

At the time of all of these encounters, I was a young Christian man with a sexually immoral habit that I just could not seem to break. If there are such things as high-functioning or closet alcoholics, I was a high-functioning or closet adulterer (by the standard Christ sets in the Sermon on the Mount: “Any man who looks at a women lustfully commits adultery with her in his heart”). On the outside everything looked fine.

And it is in this context that I recall for the first time hearing a sermon, or talk, or testimony, that, like Mullins said, “broke the power of mere “moralistic religiosity” in my life and revived a deeper acceptance of the gospel truth that had long ago withered in me.” Sure, I was only 19 or 20, but I still remember it to this day. I hope and pray that even today, as you read this measly blog post from Beavercreek, Ohio, you hear a simple proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. May it do in your life what the gospel can’t help but do: break the power of mere moralistic religiosity.

In Luke chapter 15, Christ gives a parable to two types of people who are there listening. Look at the setting to see his audience.

“Now the Tax Collectors and Sinners were all drawing near to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

Characters:

Tax Collectors and Sinners – These characters are not “good” people. They did not view themselves as “good” people. They viewed themselves as “bad” people. Unwanted, unclean, and unworthy. Sinners.

Pharisees and Scribes – These characters are “good” in their own eyes and in the eyes of those around them. They are worthy, clean, and wanted. Holy.

It is in this scene with these characters and in response to the accusation that Jesus “receives sinners and eats with them” that Christ gives three parables. First, a parable about the lost sheep, then a parable about a lost coin, and then a parable of the prodigal son.

The parable of the Prodigal Son is a story of a man with two sons. The younger son asks for his inheritance before his father is even dead. Shortly after, the younger son squanders his inheritance in “reckless living.” Then a famine arose and the younger son was in real need so he hired himself out to work and feed pigs. He was starving and longed to eat even the mush he was feeding the pigs. Then it occurs to him that his father’s servants never go hungry. He decides he will return to his father’s house, admit that he has sinned and therefore no longer worthy to be his son, and then ask his father to treat him like one of the hired servants. So he arose and went to his father.

“While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

Presumably, while is father is holding him, the son delivered the lines he had rehearsed in his head about his own unworthiness to his father. As if he wasn’t even listening, the father orders his servants to bring the “best robe” to be put on his son, and to put a ring in his hand and shoes on his feet. “And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”

Now while all of this is happening we see that the older brother from the beginning of the story reenters. The older brother was in the field and as he started walking back he heard all of the music and could tell that a big celebration was taking place. The older brother inquiries from a servant what the partying is all about and the servant says, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.” At this news the older brother became angry and refused to go into the house for the party.

The father came out of the house to invite the older brother into the celebration, but the older brother responds, "Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” Then the father said to the older brother, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”[iii]

Remember our characters. In this parable we are to identify the Tax Collectors and Sinners as the “younger brother” and the Pharisees and scribes as the “older brother.” It appears that the younger brother had thought, “if I admit my sin, and acknowledge my shame, maybe I can be a servant in my father’s house.” But, as the Mumford and Sons song “Roll Away Your Stone” so aptly states, “It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart, but the welcome I receive with the restart.”

In this parable we get a window into the heart of God himself, the Father. Sinners who return to God, rehearsing their admission of sin, are seen by their Father from far off, and in his compassion he comes running to embrace us and kiss us! Why? God loves sinners. Because what was lost has been found, what was dead, is now alive. God, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, has found lost things, and given life to spiritually dead people. The Bible tells us that those like the younger brother are for whom Christ came.

With the man named Jerry, whom I mentioned at the beginning of this post, God began to teach me as a young man that repentance is when a sinner is done starving himself on pig scraps and decides to walk home, admit his wrong, and fully accept the consequences for his actions (he is often filled with shame and guilt as he does these things). But God taught me something even greater, that I never otherwise would have learned. Grace is the welcome he receives when his Dad spies his son come around the bend a far way off. The best I could hope for was to admit my sin and live as a second-class Christian with a deserved Scarlet Letter on me the rest of my days. Instead, I received the loving, compassionate embrace of God who showed me he sent his son to die specifically for people like me, he clothed me in his righteousness and gave me a new life. The modern hymn song is true, “our sins they are many, but his mercy is more.”

If you don’t know Jesus and have been living “recklessly” and feeding closet habits of sexual immorality, drunkenness, bitterness, jealousy, gossip, lying, etc…may I exhort you to stop trying to “manage” your sin, deem yourself good by comparison to others, or remain far off from home as you beat yourself up? Instead, come as you are, admitting who you are, to your Father’s house and receive his abundant grace for sinners. He ran to his son. He clothed his son. He placed a ring on his son. He put new shoes on his son. He slaughtered the fattened calf. He threw a party of singing and dancing. He lavished his grace upon the sinner. God lavishes grace upon sinners.

As C.S. Lewis penned in his book The Weight of Glory,

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”[iv]

If you do know Jesus, and you have been living “recklessly” again (as we all do), may God remind you that you actually are now currently at the “holiday at sea” looking for mud pies from the slum. May this story of Good News remind you that you have already been forgiven, welcomed, clothed, and celebrated by the Father. You are found. You are alive in Christ. You are a new creation. This is who you actually are, therefore put off those things that still hinder you, and run the race that God has for you with the shoes he has placed on you. Your sin does not disqualify you, Christ’s righteousness qualifies you. Therefore lets us seek forgiveness of our trespasses and be quick to forgive others of theirs.

This is the good news that broke through to Rich Mullins, Brennan Manning, countless others, and miraculously, me. It alone has the power to save the dead heart and revive the wandering heart. The good news is that God, in Christ, has found lost people. In Christ, God gives life to spiritually dead people, and he loves it! He celebrates it! He has lavished his grace upon the sinner through his son Jesus Christ.

May the Gospel continue to do what it can’t help but do!
Joey Turner
Pastor of Student Ministries

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Mullins - Spotify some Rich Mullins today and you won’t regret it.
[ii] The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan Manning. Pg. 11
[iii] Summarized from Luke 15:11-32
[iv] The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis