Luke 5:37,38 No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved. No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’" (web)
The fermenting of new wine builds up pressure in its container which can burst old skins. You'll notice the effect if you open a corked wine bottle. Biblical Christianity has a great deal of power and activity associated with it. It explodes out of the boundaries of Israel and continues to cross all kinds of boundaries. It cannot be contained. Neither can its practice be limited to a set of commandments. The Holy Spirit ferments the believer, helping him to infer applications from the Bible that apply to his particular situation. And having been fermented, believers are sometimes literally mistaken for drunkards.
"These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning!" Acts 2:15The old covenant had finished fermenting. Not only that, but Israel had drunken it down and now all that was left was an old wineskin it had been contained in. Yes, it was good wine, having been aged. But its time was over. Its effect was completed and the fulness of the times had come for the new wine of the new covenant.
"So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law." Gal 3:24,25But then the most reluctant people to accept the new wine were those Jewish religious leaders, drunk on the old wine. So drunk that they kill their own Messiah. They considered the old wine better. But the Gentiles accepted the new wine."But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." Gal 4:4,5
If in old skins you put new wine
Not what is aged, but straight from the vine The skins will burst and the wine run out That is, if you keep the cork in the snout. New wine must be put into new skins To store the wine as fermenting begins And no one after drinking the old Says the new is better, so I'm told Thus the Jews rejected God's grace For an empty old skin in its place. |