The same - Inside and Out!

When Jesus talked to the Jewish people about their religion, He used illustrations to help them understand the flaws of the old covenant under law. He wanted them to understand that keeping the law was not intended to be merely external; God wanted their obedience from a pure heart.

This is not a difficult concept. I’m thinking of the story of the little boy who was standing up in the car. When his father finally got him to sit down, he stuck out his lip and declared, “But I’m standing up on the inside.”

In the mind of God, my efforts to keep His laws are much like that little boy. I might look like I am doing the right things, but as He looks inside and knows the sinful self-serving behind my actions.

Jesus came to change that. He offered new life, a cleansed heart included. The people of His day, like today, either didn’t understand it or didn’t want it. He used an illustration to show them the logic of their need, and the reason behind their rejection.

“No one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
In those days wine was stored in animal skins. As the wine fermented, the skins were elastic enough to stretch and accommodate the increased pressure. Obviously a skin that was old and already stretched would be useless to use with a new batch of wine.

The parallel is that the new covenant Jesus brought could not be contained by the old one. The laws of God, while good in themselves, had not perfected sinners then, nor can they now. People need a new heart to live a new way—new wine and new wineskins.

The problem is that giving up the old way, “my way” of doing things is not easy. While I enjoy change and new things, I settle into ruts rather easily. Like old wine, the familiar can seem much better than accepting anything new. It took a huge shake up in my life before I was willing to listen to God and be ready for the new life Jesus offered me.

Each day, even with a new heart, it is possible to fake it, to settle into a routine of doing good things yet have an inner attitude of resistance toward God and His commands. I might look good to those watching, but God knows my heart. I can easily be standing up on the inside.

To do His will I need both the outer actions and the inner “wine” of the Holy Spirit who makes those actions meaningful. God doesn’t want me to go through the motions without my whole being involved. In other words, when my Father asks me to do a new thing, or even a familiar thing, I am challenged to not only settle into the task, but settle into it with all my heart. To do that, I have to continually accept His new covenant which includes total faith in Jesus Christ and the full power of the Holy Spirit for everything that I do, whether I am standing up or sitting down.