Get Better or Get Worse

UV 2747/10000 Get Better or Get Worse
No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse
Matthew 9 v 16
We cannot live the new life in Christ with our old heart attitudes, traditions, habits and ways of doing things. Salvation is not a patch work- a mix of the old and new but it is a complete new set of clothes, a new set of armour. If we mix our new beliefs with old attitudes, it will amount to incongruity, inconsistency and unsustainability in our lives. There will be a gap between our beliefs, our expression of it and our practice. If we mix our old emotional patterns with our new faith in Christ, we become worse than before. We need to get rid completely of old baggage and old bondage of our past. We cannot hold onto some things from our past and add them to the new covenant faith.
The Father has given us a new set of clothes of salvation purchased with the blood of His Son. It needs to be kept as white as snow, spotless, blemishless, free from wrinkles and free from damage. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, He has cast our old clothes away in the fire and given us new robes of salvation, new authority of being His signet ring, new shoes of readiness to go places for Him. He has called us to a feast of celebration on our return to our home where new wine from new wine bags will be served. No more are we to have anything to do with the old yeast of insincerity, hypocrisy or duplicity. We cannot return to our old prodigal ways of rebelling against the Father’s authority, rejecting His love and His grace, relying on our own wisdom and attempting to seek our own fortune. We should also not patch on the attitude of the older more responsible, obedient, loyal but self righteous brother. We are to be penitent, responsible and ever humble, knowing that it is only grace that made the Father accept us back home again and not anything that we did or can do in this world.
The redemption of our destiny should be accompanied by the redemption or transformation of our character. The old self or old man should die and the new creature should live. If we do not address our old attitudes with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will be like guests who come to the wedding feast of the Lamb inappropriately dressed or dressed in patchwork clothes or in rags. Our new beliefs should trigger new attitudes, new ways of thinking, behaving and acting or reacting. Our new covenant relationship with the Father should change us for the better both on the inside and on the outside. Our communication and behaviour on the outside should reflect the inner change. The uni-verse warns us that having tasted the grace and mercy of God in Christ, if we are not getting better, we are in danger of getting worse for “the rent is made worse”.

Prateep V Philip