New Wine in Old Bottles

In answering a question made by the Pharisees, Jesus uses an analogy to make a point.

He says in Matthew 9:17, “Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.”

In biblical times the word “bottle” meant something different than what the modern word would imply.

A leather bottle, wineskin or bottle referred to a container made of skins to transport liquids in that time period.

It was usually a bag made of goatskins, tanned with acacia bark and left hairy on the outside.

New wine or freshly squeezed grape juice would have to be placed in new bottles for storage during fermentation. In time the new wine or grape or fruit juice will automatically ferment and generate gas and exert pressure on the bottle.

New skin will allow elasticity with the expanding nature of the maturing wine.

However, an old bottle will not stretch, yield, and respond to the gas pressure developed by the fermenting wine. Because the old bottle will not stretch, it will just explode. Then, both the bottle and wine are lost. Therefore new wine needs to be put into new bottles.

God does a similar procedure in the salvation of a believer. God makes the believer a new being.

(1 Corinthians 5:17)- “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.”

God has placed in the believer a new nature or “new wine.”

The Word is made alive in the heart of the believer. Now it begins to grow or expand.

The old mind and body cannot contain it. There is a conflict between the old and new natures.

In the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, chapter 7, verses 15-16, Paul describes this. “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate that do I.”

In Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, Paul writes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”

When God makes a new believer, he begins to transform the mind and conduct of the life of the believer.

The Christian life is a renewing process that will only be completed once the believer reaches home. Thus the Christian life today is a process of new wine placed in a changing bottle.