Parables are word pictures which illustrate a point or truth.
Jesus used parables to explain various truths of God.

One time, Jesus was answering hostile questions from a group of Pharisees and their scribes (Luke 5:30, 33).  His reply was that He had come to heal the sick and that His disciples would fast after their Bridegroom had left.

Then Jesus used another parable about old clothing and new cloth.
(NASB) Luke 5:36 “…‘No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.”

What comes to your mind as you read the above verse?
Do you picture an old shirt, dress, or other article of clothing which has been torn?  Whatever repairs would be needed, you would not cut from a like garment to patch the old one, would you?  Even if the same colors and pattern were present, there would probably be a shading difference, and the fibers in the old would be worn, not new.

How does this parable affect your relationship to and with the Lord Jesus Christ?

Before becoming a committed follower of Christ, you have an old nature.  The nature you were born with which is sinful.  (Yes, even children…adorable as they are…do sinful things.  That is why a parent or other caring adult must correct.  They need to be disciplined while they are young.  It is a matter of training them in the way they should go.)  (Proverbs 22:6)

When we turn to the living Christ Jesus to be our Savior, believing Him to be the Son of God, we are given His Holy Spirit, and we are given a new nature.  New life has been given.  The old is gone, the new is come.  Just like the old torn garment cannot be repaired with a patch from a new garment…so we cannot contain the life of Christ in us unless we are given a new nature.

Do we continue to sin?  Yes, but we have access to our Savior’s blood which cleans us up from confessed sin(s).

Does your life, as a follower of Christ, show this fact?  Are your thoughts, motives, words and actions evidence of His new life in you?  If not, what do you need to confess and be forgiven?

Old Clothing, New Clothing

From Old Life…to New Life in Christ!