Mat 9:16 | KingComments | STEP | Then the Lord clarifies through two examples the difference between the age of the law, that is the time before His coming, and the age of grace, that is the time after His coming. In these examples He makes it clear that the requirements of the law cannot be mixed with grace. He uses two different pictures. In the picture of the garment it is about Christ bringing an outwardly new system, a new order of affairs. To enter this new order of things, that is His kingdom, it is necessary to obey the gospel He proclaims. Therefore, there is a call to repentance ( ). It is impossible to participate in the kingdom by keeping the law or adhering to legal principles. This is the way the Pharisees try to enter the kingdom. The Lord shows that the old way, the keeping the law, and the new way, living out of grace, cannot go together. If the patch of unshrunk cloth, that is the gospel, is sewn on an old garment, that is the law, the result will be that both will rip. Yet it is precisely this that we see happening in large parts of Christianity. An attempt has been made to attach the new to the old by maintaining many forms of Judaism in Christianity and adding to that certain Christian truths. We recognize this for example in a separate priestly class, a literal altar, sacred clothing, candles and all kinds of other external things to which a certain spiritual value is attributed. Such external things make the external appearance of Christianity a false representation of what it should be. In addition to the external appearance , the content of the new cannot be reconciled with the content of the old. That is represented in the picture of the wineskins. Within Christendom as it is in God’s mind, there are new people who are filled with a new joy. The old, the old man, has no place here. The Lord Jesus brings true joy, He makes the wedding a feast ( ). One can only share in that joy, if he himself is renewed, if he is a new man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Then such a person experiences “joy in the Holy Spirit”, which is one of the characteristics of the kingdom of God at this time ( ).

‏ Matthew 9:16

The New and the Old

Then the Lord clarifies through two examples the difference between the age of the law, that is the time before His coming, and the age of grace, that is the time after His coming. In these examples He makes it clear that the requirements of the law cannot be mixed with grace.

He uses two different pictures. In the picture of the garment it is about Christ bringing an outwardly new system, a new order of affairs. To enter this new order of things, that is His kingdom, it is necessary to obey the gospel He proclaims. Therefore, there is a call to repentance (Mt 4:17). It is impossible to participate in the kingdom by keeping the law or adhering to legal principles. This is the way the Pharisees try to enter the kingdom.

The Lord shows that the old way, the keeping the law, and the new way, living out of grace, cannot go together. If the patch of unshrunk cloth, that is the gospel, is sewn on an old garment, that is the law, the result will be that both will rip. Yet it is precisely this that we see happening in large parts of Christianity. An attempt has been made to attach the new to the old by maintaining many forms of Judaism in Christianity and adding to that certain Christian truths. We recognize this for example in a separate priestly class, a literal altar, sacred clothing, candles and all kinds of other external things to which a certain spiritual value is attributed. Such external things make the external appearance of Christianity a false representation of what it should be.

In addition to the external appearance, the content of the new cannot be reconciled with the content of the old. That is represented in the picture of the wineskins. Within Christendom as it is in God’s mind, there are new people who are filled with a new joy. The old, the old man, has no place here.

The Lord Jesus brings true joy, He makes the wedding a feast (Jn 2:1-10). One can only share in that joy, if he himself is renewed, if he is a new man in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. Then such a person experiences “joy in the Holy Spirit”, which is one of the characteristics of the kingdom of God at this time (Rom 14:17).