August 18 - Of Wine and Wineskins - Devotional

GracetoYou.org ^ | 2008 | John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

[metmom]

“‘No one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved’” (Matthew 9:16–17).

Whenever repairing clothing or attaching a new patch to an old garment, the tailor or seamstress must be careful to follow particular guidelines and avoid certain mistakes. In like manner, believers cannot combine outmoded and external traditions of self-righteousness and ritual with the gospel of grace and forgiveness.

With these words, Jesus illustrates the truth that the old way cannot contain His new way: “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined.” Old wineskins eventually dry up and crack, and if you try to pour new wine into them, they will burst and spill the wine. Fresh wine requires a fresh skin. By analogy, the only life that can contain genuine holiness is the regenerate life granted by God when the Spirit draws a person to faith and repentance, when he or she trusts Christ as Lord and Savior.

The old wineskins refer not to God’s law and the Old Testament but to the rabbinical traditions that supplanted and contradicted God’s truth. Thus Jesus’ bringing in His new teachings in place of some old or unbiblical teachings does not mean He sets aside the divine law for some kind of ill-defined, licentious, anything-goes form of grace. The Lord unmistakably declares that He came to fulfill the Father’s law, not destroy it. Law and grace, rightly understood, have always been compatible with the believer’s benefit and blessing.

Ask Yourself

The subtext for this passage is that the self-righteous are focused on the value of their “wineskins,” while the true believer places his worth in the value of the “new wine.” What’s the difference?

From Daily Readings from the Life of Christ, Vol. 1, John MacArthur. Copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL 60610, www.moodypublishers.com.

[metmom]

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[metmom]

Studying God’s Word ping

[Fido969]

I come from a long line of vintners, and I have trouble with this explanation.

Wine gives off gas as it ferments. A fresh wineskin (bladder) will expand to accommodate the gas. After the wineskin is used, it can not be used again, it would break “and both the wine and the wineskin would be ruined." That just makes sense.

New wine is sweet, think of Boone's Farm ( if you are that old!) It's a kids’ drink. But, as we know, wine gets better as it ages (up to a point, until it turns to vinegar) A mature person would likely prefer an aged wine.

So what is Jesus saying? I think he is saying: “Don't constrain these new believers with your rules and restrictions for mature people. That will ruin them - and you”

In Job, a young man states “I am new wine” to explain his youth. New wine is used to describe exuberance bubbliness.

Jesus, however, dies not condemn the old wine. Those who cite this story from Jesus tend to ignore the last sentence of his explanation.

[Karl Spooner]

And the ever popular....

"Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth." Joel 1:5

[Fido969]

Luke 5:39: And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”

It seems to me Jesus is comparing the new believers with the mature believer. “Be flexible with the new converts. They will run out if you are too rigid. But they will mature, and appreciate the old.” He did not come to destroy the law.

[metmom]

That is fascinating.

Thanks for sharing that.

[MurphsLaw]

Another perspective would be Jesus is speaking of His Apostles.
A few verses before the wineskins reference, Jesus is defending his Apostles from the charge made to him why Christ's apostles  "do not fast like the disciples of John ( Essenes) and the Pharisees".
So the old skin then also can refer to his Apostles, who were not yet perfectly renewed through Christ.
The new wine is the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the depths of the heavenly mysteries, which Christ said the apostles could not handle yet- and the Holy Spirit would have to assist them.
Once the Resurrection was accomplished, the apostles would become the new skins, and were filled with "new wine" of the Holy Spirit- Pentecost.
Not to get overlooked is the ribbing of those speaking in tongues with the verse:
"These men are full of the new wine." [Acts 2:13]

The Jews could not handle this new wine- could not bear its hard sayings, and most would deny Christ... a waste of the new wine.
This new wine now the preached Gospel of the Word made Flesh precepts, which the Jews were not able to bear; so "the rent was made worse."
The new Gospel word is to be poured into the Apostles, the new Church, rather than into the Scribes and Pharisees, who were corrupted and lost their way-  and unable to hold or keep the purity of Christ's Love.
This foretells the Apostles from that point on to be replenished with new life of this grace, unbound to the old Israel which the Old Wine was replaced with the New.

[Fido969]

Ambiguity leads to contemplation, which can be a good thing. (As long as it doesn’t lead to heresy.)

[ViLaLuz]

It’s like the analogy of feeding baby Christians milk. Later they are ready for meat.