Mark 2:21-22 — Patchwork, Piecemeal, or New?

"No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. 
If he does, the wine will burst the skins—
and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. 
But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

The glory of the gospel message could not be contained in the old skin of the Mosiac Law, nor could it be limited to merely the Jewish nation. It was for all the world. 

It occurs to me that this passage speaks not only to the great religious paradigm shift in Jesus' day from law to grace by means of the cross; but, it also applies to the individual. I can't change my life in my own strength… my efforts only make the tear in my soul and relationships worse. Neither can I have Jesus transform my heart and remain the same on the outside... things will be changed!

Our best intentions to clean or remodel our own lives fail miserably like the old movie clips of a botched Three Stooges paint job. While it might be morbidly funny to those watching from a safe distance, but the collateral damage can be painful for our family and unsightly for our neighbors. We cannot change ourselves from the outside in. Too much "spiritual formation" only works from the outside, applying various disciplines with the hope of one day changing the heart. Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, works the other way...from the inside out. 

He does this by poured the love of God into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). The amazing thing is that God didn't wait for us to shape up our lives to begging the process. It was while we were still his enemies, that Jesus died for us. 

…and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

Photo by Ismael-paramo on Unsplash

We need to surrender to Christ completely. God is not pleased by our efforts to darn our tattered lives like so many threadbare socks. He is not interested in my being thrifty with my old man, nor in my spiritual self-recycling efforts.

God wants me to acknowledge that I can't do it and never will be able to be the man, husband, pastor that I need to be without allowing him to do his work in me. Yet, if I yield to him, the Holy Spirit makes me new from the inside out. Jesus will make my life a "new wineskin" capable of containing the new wine of the Holy Spirit, clothing me in a new garment capable of reflecting God's glory and sharing his goodness with those around us.