The Old and the New Life

And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ” (Luke 5: 33-39).

Jesus’ life and ministry was a consistent confrontation with the hearts and souls of men… “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51). In today’s scripture, the Spirit of truth reveals how Jesus used fasting, cloth, and wineskins to provoke a confrontation between old, traditional understandings and new, spiritual revelations about religion, man, and the way to salvation and life with God. The Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to exhort serious disciples to diligently guard against the subtle temptation to become slaves to the traditions and ways of men… “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Here we find truth that helps us rightly discern between the old and the new life.

The old and the new religion:  Fasting can energize or deflate our life. It is a very obvious expression of our belief system, or religion. The Holy Spirit inspired the prophet Zechariah to confront the motivations of the children of Israel who were very religious about fasting… “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?'" (Zechariah 7:5). The Spirit revealed through the prophet Isaiah that their motives were selfish. Their fasting was an attempt to manipulate and draw God closer to themselves… “’Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers” (Isaiah 58:3). Jesus taught that proper fasting does not draw God closer, but was intended to free earnest disciples from the world and make us more available to God… “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:17-18).

The old and the new man: The life of genuine discipleship begins with the spiritual birth… “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). The new birth makes us a new creation… “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Just as new cloth cannot be sewn to an old garment, the spiritual man born anew from God does not get along with the old man born of the flesh… “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17). Our Teacher exhorts us to resist desires of the flesh by living and walking in the Spirit… “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

The old and the new way: The Old Testament showed that life with God required a never ending battle with sin. Christ, the fulfillment of the law and atonement for sin, was like new wine that must be placed in the new wineskin of faith… “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). All who are truly convicted of sin and earnestly seek eternal life and fellowship with God will find Jesus the Savior… “I am the way, and the truth, and the life… and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 14:6; 6:37).

As we grow up into Christ we become more sensitive to and a clearer reflection of…

The Old and the New Life.