Meditation for Monday
But the new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are preserved. Luke 5:38
The parable of the old and new wine and wineskins is an excellent illustration of the differences between the dispensations of law and grace. First, we need to understand what happens when wine is placed into the wineskins – or bottles as our text has it. The wineskin was made from the skin of an animal, most often a goat. When the new wine – actually grape juice freshly pressed – was put into the skin, it would begin to ferment and to expand. The skin would expand with the wine, being new, and it would be porous enough to allow the gases from the fermentation process to escape without bursting the skin. But such a wineskin could not be used often; as it aged, it would lose its flexibility so that it could no longer expand with the wine, and it would no longer be porous enough to allow the gases to escape. It was important to use only new wineskins for new wine. God’s working among His people in the Old Testament was the old wine that was perfectly fine for the wineskin of the law. But the new wineskin of grace was needed for God’s working among His people in this new dispensation.
The people of Jerusalem were amazed on the day of Pentecost to see and hear the incredible change in the apostles and those who were with them. They had never seen anything like that before. It was a demonstration of the amazing explosive action of the Holy Spirit working in the believers, something that was unknown in the Old Testament under the law. Also evident that day was the dynamite of God unto salvation in the preaching of the Gospel. Three thousand converts in one day was also proof that the new dispensation would rapidly expand beyond the bounds of Israel into the entire world of Jew and Gentile alike. The old wineskin of the law limited God’s workings to the children of Israel and to their proselytes. We can see the illustration of the old and new wineskins being displayed on the basis of activity alone. But the illustration goes much further, taking us into doctrines and prophecy that include us in our dispensation of grace and beyond.
If we compare the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy with the epistles in our New Testament, we will find some common principles, but vastly different instructions. Directions that applied specifically to the Israelites and their lives simply could not apply to the Christians functioning throughout the world in the dispensation of grace. We have liberty and direction to display the workings of the Holy Spirit among us. No Old Testament prophet foresaw the day of grace. It was not until the New Testament that we received prophetic revelations concerning us, as God’s program moved throughout the world and through the centuries toward the end time events foretold by Daniel and others in the Old Testament.
The new wineskin of grace will soon reach its capacity as the new wine runs its course. A new wineskin of judgment is coming, but not for us. God’s program is amazing! – Jim MacIntosh