You Were Born To Lead
“And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.” Mat 9:17. Jesus came into the world conscious that he was bringing something essentially new. The long caravan of humanity had been moving in one direction for centuries, now it was to stop and change its course wherein it had been moving towards the city of legalism, it was now to move towards the city of grace. It is now to move toward the spiritual kingdom which is both now` and yet to come. It was recognition of this newness which Christ uses in the text of Mathew 9:17. As he thinks his own new ideas, He is compelled to think also how it will adapt itself to the old ways and thoughts and habits which it finds.
To put this new life into old patterns of thinking was like putting fresh flowing wine into a dry and rotten bottle. It is inevitable that the bottle will break and the wine will run out the old will not hold the new. The central idea is that what is new and strong and creative needs something new and strong to hold it. There have been times in history when the new and creative ideas appeared on the scene, but ended up unaccepted because the very historical atmosphere at the time was not sufficiently new and strong to contain them. If often happens that an individual comes forth with a new dynamic ideas, only to find it is temporarily defeated because it can only find abode in an old worn out bottle. The same is true in our personal lives often times we have new resolutions to change our lives.
We often attempt to get rid of bad habits, just like a man who has a fresh desire to stop drinking, to be more honest e.t.c, but in a few days he is back to doing the same thing. The real problem lies in the fact that this new fresh resolution is not coupled with a change in one general or overall structure of life. He has a new desire to change one segment of his life, but this new desire is placed in the same old worn out general structure. Why is it that we find it difficult to follow resolutions? We concentrate on changing this one habit, forgetting that this one habit infiltrates the whole personality, and to change this habit means changing the whole habit structure, the whole general make-up the fresh idea for changing is poured back into the same old general framework. Newness and “new bottles” can only be found in Christ, when sinners who Christ call by his grace, and the new spirit regenerates and renews, and a sinners are made new creatures in Christ. Who have new hearts, new spirits, and new principles of light, life, love, faith and holiness, implanted in them, who have new eyes to see with; new ears to hear with; new feet to walk with and new hands to handle with and who live a new life and conversation?
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