Tags
Forgiveness, grace, Let go of the pass, love, move forward, Sweet, Sweetness
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.
God never wants us to have mixture of old and new or law and grace in our lives. That’s why He did away with the old to give us His new covenant of grace. When we revert back to the old covenant in any measure we are mixing the old with the new which cause the new to lose its sweetness.
To preserve the sweetness of the juice people would strain or boil the juice, bottle it and place it in a cool area. Fresh wineskins were required because they would be free from all residual fermenting matter such as mature yeast cells. If placed in old wineskins, new wine would more easily begin to ferment because of the yeast cells which remained in the old wineskins thus causing the loss of the new wine and the wineskins. Therefore, the old was done away with so that the new alone would remain. The new covenant of grace retains its sweetness when it is grace and grace alone, no mixture.
In order to receive all the new from the grace of God, you must first receive His grace for the old. You must first receive grace for your old life in order to receive a new life in Christ. This means receiving grace for all you pass mistakes, failures and hurts. Yes, hurts. Hurts can hide deep inside you and can fester for years when you don’t receive God’s grace of forgiveness. God forgives us and He gives us His grace to forgive one another and ourselves. As a believer if you are not receiving God’s grace to forgive you’re mixing the old with the new and the new has lost its sweetness to you. How? When you allow unforgiveness to live in you, you lose your peace and joy. You no longer taste the sweetness of grace because of the old. Maybe you’re gone through divorce and you’ve never let go of the hurt. God’s grace is there to heal you of all the pass mistakes, failures and hurts. Or maybe you’ve been offended by people who said they were your friends and you’re finding it hard to make new friends. Luke 5:39 says “No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new; for he saith, the old is better.” God himself forgives us our sins and remembers them no more so that all that remain is our new life in Christ and He gives us the grace to do the same because He wants that new relationship to always be sweet. It will be when there is no remembrance of the old. Love knows nothing against. Love lets go of the old to retain the sweetness of grace.
