S133P3 – Words to live by: you must be remade
Lk. 5:36-39
Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’ ”
I have never drunk wine from a wineskin, but I certainly have worn clothing with patches. When I was a child, a hole torn in a pair of jeans did not mean that I got a new pair of jeans. If the hole were big enough, my mother would put a patch there. I understand the sensibility of her frugality today, but that young boy certainly did not. He wanted those jeans to be whole and complete. He did not want his classmates to see that the new patch did not match the old cloth, and the issue of irregular shrinkage was real. That patch was always temporary, and the hole would return. This illustration of Christ’s is about the spiritual newness required for our conversion to be genuine and not a moment of mere lip service or emotional response.
We are spiritual beings, and we have the option to operate in one of two ways. Our sinful nature, which is the old self, only allows us to operate in the flesh. We might look at some of our works or words from our time of living in the flesh and think that they were good, but no “good” act or sentiment could alter that fallen nature. When we decide to live for Christ, we are signing up to live according to the Spirit, which is a new nature for us. This is the new wine. The issue is that we cannot partake of that wine, we cannot walk in the nature of the Spirit, unless we have been spiritually remade to have that capacity. This is a lot more than saying a prayer or trying to follow some rules. This is about a change to the spiritual nature or driving force of our lifestyle and our spiritual capacity to actually live as God desires.
Of course, we cannot forget the warning of Christ that the transformation from drinking the old wine to the new wine will not be easy. We might be new creations, but evil desires remain within us and will entice us to go back to that old wine and give birth to sin; it still tastes good. For this reason, any attempt at trying to live according to the Spirit without genuine spiritual rebirth will fail. Only the spiritually remade can hold (carry) the new Spirit necessary to wage and win those wars. The old spiritual nature simply is not made to be the Spirit’s residence and is insufficient for entrance into the kingdom of God. Father, thank You for the gift of spiritual rebirth, and open the eyes of those who need to see that they have not yet been spiritually reborn.