RPG Adults
THE OLD AND THE NEW
FRIDAY, JANUARY 14
Mark 2:18-22
Romans 3:24-28
“…no man putteth new wine
into old bottles…”
THE OLD AND THE NEW
“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” (Mark 2:22). What Jesus is saying here is this: Old wineskins are not suitable for new wine. New, fermenting wine would burst the wineskins, resulting in the loss of both skins and wine. Understand that in those days, bottles for storing wine were made of leather, not glass like today. New wine must be put into new wineskins.
So, what do the wine and wineskins represent? The new wine is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the old wineskin is the legalism of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus came with the gospel—the good news of salvation by grace through faith in Christ, and not by works (Rom 3:24-28). The gospel does not fit the old, man-made system of salvation by works as taught by the scribes and Pharisees.
Further, the truths of the New Covenant must be received by faith and faith alone, by those who are born again by the Spirit for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14). “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other” (Gal 5:17). To receive the new, the good, and the spiritual, one must cast out the old sinful and worldly self. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17).
THOUGHT: The new that Jesus brings is really the good old stuff.
PRAYER: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Ps 51:10)