Patches and Wineskins

N.T.#341 "Patches and Wineskins"

July 5, 2024 

Mark 2-Part 3

LET IT GLOW 

Originally, God gave the Law to Israel for order and to set them apart as His covenant people. the Law was originally to be used as a diagnostic tool to show their need (and our need) for salvation. However, the Law was deficient, as Jesus showed through the analogy of the old garment and the new wine:

No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. (verse 21)

It is like sewing on a new piece of material as a patch for a hole on an old garment. The new patch will pull the hole and make it bigger. What it needs is to be preshrunk by washing it. Then when it is sewn onto the old garment, it will not tare it.

The Law cannot save. It only points out our sins and desperate need for salvation. We cannot meet God's standard of perfection. It doesn't fix our sin problem.

 Jesus didn't come to patch up the old religious system of Judaism with its rules and traditions. The Son of God came to earth to offer people forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. When we follow Christ, we need to be prepared for new ways to live, new ways to look at people, and new ways to serve. (Life Application Study Bible)

LET IT GROW 

And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles. (verse 22)

Newly made and unused wineskins provided the necessary strength and elasticity to hold up as wine fermented. A wineskin was a goatskin sewed together at the edges to form a watertight bag. New wine, expanding as it aged, stretched the wineskin. I read that new wine causes carbon dioxide, thus the expanding bag.

This second analogy Jesus used illustrated His new and internal Gospel of repentance from and forgiveness of sin could not be connected to or contained in the old and external traditions of self-righteousness and ritual. (MacArthur)

If keeping certain rituals, specific laws, avoiding forbidden behaviors, being good could gain favor with God, then Jesus did not need to die on the cross. But those things do not meet God's standards because man cannot keep them. However, Jesus could, so He offers forgiveness of our sins, since He paid the penalty for them. We have His gift of grace through faith.

LET IT GO 

Renew our hearts each day, Lord Jesus.

Forgive our sins and failures.

Help us show grace to others.