About That Old Testament Quotation...

In Luke 5:36-39, Jesus taught an important parable to Jewish religious leaders who were attempting to assert control over Him and, eventually, over the new covenant He would initiate with His own blood. He told them, “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.” The meaning of this parable is not explicitly explained, but it is not hard to infer.

The Jewish religious leaders wanted to maintain their authority and felt threatened by Jesus’ teaching, which was better than their own in every way (Matt. 7:28-29). When they began harassing Jesus, He told them through this parable that He wasn’t planning to amend the old garment of Judaism; He was bringing in an entirely new garment: Christianity. The Jews were scrambling to protect a covenant that was finally being fulfilled (Matt. 5:17-18). And once it was fulfilled, it would have reached the end of its life, the end of its God-ordained purpose (Heb. 8:13). The Law of Moses, including the ten commandments, passed away at the death of Christ on the cross, and at the same time, the New Covenant was made in His blood (Matt. 26:28; Heb. 9:15-17).

From time to time, someone with a strong opinion will quote a verse or two from the Old Covenant as though it has authority over Christian behavior in the New Covenant, but it does not. While there are helpful principles that can be learned from the Hebrew Scriptures, their word-for-word commands are not binding on anyone following the death of Jesus Christ (Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11). Those who attempt to bind statements from the Old Covenant on Christians only succeed in displaying their ignorance of God’s current intention with those Scriptures. Do not be dismayed, continue in the grace and truth made real in Jesus Christ (John 1:17).