“Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:17, NKJV)
The Old Covenant gave us commandments written on tablets of stone that were good, righteous, and holy. They revealed, in shadow, the nature of God. However, they were not given with the idea that mankind would be able to keep them — due to the weakness of our fleshly. The main purpose for which they were given was to reveal to man his fallen, sinful nature and his need for salvation (Galatians 3:19–27; Romans 7:7).
When Christ was born, the New Covenant was born. Through His life, His teaching, and His death, He revealed to us—not just in shadow—the true nature of God. He was and is the express image of the invisible God (Hebrews 1:3; John 14:6–10). He taught us, by example and by doctrine, that the true nature of God is love. And the nature of love that Christ revealed goes far beyond mere emotion. Love is who He was and is. Every thought, every motive, every intent of His heart, and every action He took were all for the good of others first.
When He died, He abolished the Old Covenant and established a better, superseding covenant with a higher moral standard (Hebrews 10:9; Galatians 2:19). The standard under the Old Covenant stopped at outward obedience to a list of rules—a shadow of the moral perfection God seeks in His people. The moral standard under the New Covenant is Christ Himself. Perfect love is what God seeks from His people under this covenant. Outward forms of godliness won’t do. God seeks a people who worship Him in spirit and in truth—a people who love Him and love others by nature.
Where the Old Covenant laid down a moral standard but gave no power to keep it, the New Covenant lays down an even higher standard and simultaneously gives the power to keep it. Under the New Covenant, God writes His laws on our hearts and minds. In other words, He puts His Son, with His nature, into our hearts. This is what it means that the love of God was shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It means we became partakers of the divine nature. The very nature of God, defined by love and revealed in Christ, came to dwell in us. God Himself—the Spirit of Holiness—became one with our spirit and began a good work in us, that work being regeneration and the beginning of our progressive transformation into the image of Christ.
This nature of Christ, imparted by and through the Spirit of Christ in us, is the new wine Jesus spoke of in parables. The Old Covenant and the old way of doing things is the old wineskin that can’t hold the new wine. Only the New Covenant—the covenant of grace—can hold the new wine.
At salvation, the Divine Nature is imparted to us in fullness. However, we are to be continually filled with Him. This doesn’t refer to our position of righteousness or the possession of the Spirit. It refers to our walk “in the Spirit” and the degree to which we allow the Divine Nature to become the source of our daily life and living.
The level of new wine we can hold is directly related to the extent to which we learn to operate in a New Covenant economy. The Old Covenant—the Law—was a performance-based system. Self was the power source, and effort was the means of performing. “Look at those rules written on stone and do your best to keep them” was the general idea. But because of the weakness of the flesh and its slavery to sin, the result was condemnation and death.
The New Covenant system is a system of grace. The only currency that spends in this economy is the blood of Jesus. Under grace, we can freely receive what we didn’t earn, didn’t work for, and don’t deserve. The primary thing we are to receive is Spirit of Life giving us experiential freedom from the law of sin and death through the quickening of our mortal body, and the precious blood of Jesus is the price that was paid so that we might receive it as a free gift. Faith in Jesus—who He is and what He’s done—is the one and only means of receiving this gift initially. As well—and this is what many people don’t understand—faith in Jesus is the one and only means of experiencing the quickening of our mortal bodies daily.
The degree to which we walk in the New Covenant economy is the degree to which we are walking in the Spirit and allowing the Divine Nature to be the Source of our living. The more our faith comes to rest exclusively, narrowly, and singularly in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the more the Life of Christ will flow out of us and bear fruit in our daily living. The more our faith rests in anything else—absolutely anything else—the more we are relying on self, which container that’s incapable of holding new wine. If our faith isn’t exclusively in the finished work of Christ, it is—in some way—in man. Whether that comes in the form of trust in the systems and methods of man, or trust our own effort and ability, there is no other place for our faith to be. Saved or not, God does not work in systems of man or bless the self-glorifying efforts of man. He only works in His covenant of grace, which is based exclusively on faith in Christ and His finished work—not in man and his feeble efforts.
Jesus Christ is the source of the Divine Nature. The covenant of grace, established at Calvary, is the means by which it is offered. Faith in Christ is the only means through which it is received—not just initially, but daily.
Walking in the Spirit isn’t merely “doing what the Holy Spirit says.” Walking in the Spirit is about walking in grace—learning to lay down the old wineskin and carry the new so that you can be continually filled with new wine. As we walk by grace through faith, and not by self-reliance and works, the Holy Spirit does far more than simply tell us what to do. He works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure by conforming our nature into the nature of Christ (Philippians 2:13; Hebrews 13:21; 2 Peter 1:4; Romans 8:11). The result is a natural outflow of obedience, motivated not by legal obligation, but by a nature that loves God and loves people. The more we live dead to the law—the old covenant economy—and live by grace and faith, the more it will be no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us through the Spirit.
And it won’t just be Christ living in us in the sense of “hanging out with us.” It will be Christ living in us in the sense of His nature being imparted to us, becoming part of our moral image, and expressing itself through us.
The result—or fruit—of such a life is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Against such, there is no law because there need not be. The love of God, written on our hearts, produces the kind of obedience and relationship God is looking for.
The law written on tablets of stone—glorious as it was—was a ministry of condemnation. But the gospel of the grace of God, through which the nature of Christ is written on our hearts, is far more glorious. Through the gospel of grace, we are reconciled to God, and the righteous requirement of the law (to love as Christ loves) is fulfilled in us. As we behold the glory of the Lamb of God, we are changed into the same image by the agency of Christ in us, the hope of glory.
“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:” (Colossians 1:27)
I wish I had somewhere to preach that right now! Written words just can’t do justice to how much I feel that.
Let us go, Church! Let us go into all the world and preach the glorious gospel of the grace of God! Let us tell the world of the Savior and His love! Let the voice of the Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel, reach every corner of this dark world with the light of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
It is finished!
It is finished!
Whosoever will may come and take the water of life freely!
Come, weary sinner. Come, backslidden saint. Lay down your old wineskin and come.
Come to the True Vine.
Let Him give you rest. Let Him give you Himself. Let Him fill your cup with new wine!
Note: This is a summary of the meaning of the New Covenant based on several Scriptures, even whole books and chapters. If you would like a Scripture reference for a specific point, just ask and I will give it. In the meantime, here is a list of Scriptures this post is generally based on:
Galatians as a whole
Galatians 2:19–3:3
Galatians 5:1–6, 16–25
Hebrews 8:10, 10:16; Ezekiel 36:26–27; Jeremiah 31:33; Philippians 2:13; Hebrews 13:20–21; 2 Peter 1:4
Romans 6–8 generally
Romans 6:14, 7:1–6, 8:2–11
Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37–38
Romans 2:29; Philippians 3:3; Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 3:6; John 4:23–24
Romans 13:8; Galatians 5:14; Mark 12:28–31; Romans 8:3; Matthew 5:17–28
Colossians 2:6–15
Colossians 3:9–10; Ephesians 4:22–24