Christ as the unshrunk cloth is not for patching an old garment. The old garment in Matthew 9:16 signifies man’s good behavior, good deeds, and religious practices by his old natural life. A patch of unshrunk cloth put on an old garment pulls away from the garment by its shrinking strength, thus making the tear worse. Putting a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment signifies trying to imitate what Christ did in His human life on earth. Today some imitate Jesus’ human deeds in the attempt to improve their behavior without believing in the crucified Jesus as their Redeemer and the resurrected Christ as their new garment to cover them as their righteousness before God.
The Lord’s word in verse 16 indicates that we should never cut a piece of His unshrunk cloth and use it to mend the “holes” in our garments. His cloth is full of shrinking power, and when applied to old garments it will simply cause the holes in them to become larger. Christ is not for patching; He is for replacing. We cannot take Him in part; we must take Him as a whole. If we try to take a part of Christ for patching our old garments, the Lord will not agree. Christ does not intend to make perfect what is imperfect. Therefore, we must surrender to Him, put ourselves aside, and take Christ as a whole.
As unshrunk cloth, Christ was indeed wonderful but not adequate to cover us. Such cloth was new, but it was not in a suitable condition for us to wear. It required some work to be done on it, a work that was accomplished when Christ was on the cross. On the cross the Lord Jesus was treated; that is, He was dealt with by man and even more by God. Then in resurrection He became a new garment. Before His crucifixion He was unshrunk cloth, but after His resurrection He is the new garment for us to put on. This new garment is Christ as our righteousness to cover us outwardly.
The Christ we apply today is not Christ before His crucifixion. Rather, the Christ we apply is the One who has made Himself into a new garment through His death and resurrection. Now we may put Him on as a complete garment to cover our entire being. In this way Christ, the pleasant person as the new garment, replaces us with Himself.
In Matthew 9:17 the Lord Jesus says, “Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined.” The Greek word translated new in this verse is neos, which means “new in time,” “recent,” “young.” The new wine here signifies Christ as the new life, full of vigor and cheering strength, stirring us to excitement and satisfying us. When we receive His life, it works within us to stir us up, excite us, energize us, and make us happy. As the new wine, Christ is our content, the provision for our inward thirst.
Whereas the new garment is Christ as our outward covering, the new wine is Christ as our inward cheering. As we contact the Lord, we should take Him not only as the new garment to cover us but also as the new wine to cheer us and to stir us up. The more we contact the Lord, the more He, the new wine, will make us cheerful. He surely is a most pleasant person!
In verse 17 the Lord Jesus says that we should not put new wine into old wineskins. Old wineskins signify religious forms, rituals, and practices. All religions are old wineskins. New wine put into old wineskins will burst the wineskins by its fermenting power. To put new wine into old wineskins is to put Christ as the exciting life into any kind of religion. We should never try to put the wine of Christ’s life into the wineskin of old religious practices, for the wine will burst those practices. The new wine of Christ as life requires a new wineskin.
New wine is to be put into fresh wineskins. According to the Lord’s word in verse 17, if we put new wine into fresh wineskins, “both are preserved.” The Greek word rendered fresh here is kainos, which means “new in nature, quality, or form; unaccustomed, unused”; hence, “fresh.” The fresh wineskins signify the church life in the local churches as the container of the new wine, which is Christ Himself as the exciting life. The believers are built into the church, and the church is expressed through the local churches in which they live. The believers are regenerated persons constituting the Body of Christ to be the church (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:22-23). This Body of Christ as His fullness is also called “the Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12), the corporate Christ. The individual Christ is the new wine, the exciting life inwardly, and the corporate Christ is the fresh wineskin, the container to hold the new wine outwardly. We need to experience and enjoy Christ as the Forgiver, the Physician, the Bridegroom, the new garment, and the new wine that we may be the fresh wineskin to contain Him.
The new wineskin is actually the church life. The church is the enlargement of Christ. The individual Christ is the wine within us. When this individual Christ is enlarged into a corporate Christ, that is the church. This corporate Christ is the wineskin, the container, to contain the individual Christ as our wine.
Christ is not only the new garment and the new wine, but, being increased, He is also our new wineskin to contain the wine. He is our outward qualification, He is our inward satisfaction, and in a corporate way He is the church, the Body, which is capable of holding the wine. From this we see that Christ is everything for our experience and enjoyment. He is the Forgiver, the Physician, the Bridegroom, the new garment, the new wine, and also the new wineskin, the corporate vessel to contain and express what we enjoy of Him.
Home | First | Prev | Next