9:16-17 What does Jesus mean by, "no man putteth a new cloth into an old garment...nor new wine in old bottles"?

9:16-17 What does Jesus mean by, “no man putteth a new cloth into an old garment...nor new wine in old bottles”?

This is called the parable of old and new cloth, and wineskins. (The bottles Jesus refers to are wineskins.) This parable is also found in Mk 2:21-22 and Lu 5:36-39. Jesus told the parable in response to questioning by John the Baptist’s disciples as to why Jesus’ disciples did not follow the accepted religious practice of fasting (cp Mt 9:14-15).

The old worn-out garment and wineskin represents the Old Testament Judaistic religious system which kept people under its law in bondage to sin (cp Ro 7:14-23; 1Cor 15:56-57). Jesus’ reference to new cloth and new wine was a way of saying that He did not come as a reformer to patch up an old worn-out religious system, but to replace it completely with a dynamic new teaching (cp Lk 4:17-21; Ga 3:22-26).

Jesus’ dynamic new teaching was salvation by grace through faith in Him, which was incompatible with the teaching of the law under the Old Testament. This new teaching could not be mixed with the old because of the new life and freedom impossible with the old (cp Ro 7:24-8:4). A good biblical example of how the old and the new could not be mixed is found in Ac 15 (cp Acts 15:1-29). See also comments on Ac 15:1-29; 2Cor 3:6, 3:12-16

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