Mark 2:21 No one sews a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment; otherwise, that which fills it up pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. Luke 5:36 And He also spoke a parable to them: No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise, he will tear the new garment, and also the patch from the new will not match the old.
In 2:21 the Lord speaks of unfulled cloth. The Greek word rendered "unfulled" also means new, raw…unfinished, unshrunk, untreated. This unfulled cloth signifies Christ, from His incarnation to His crucifixion, as a piece of new cloth, untreated, unfinished. The new garment in Luke 5:36 signifies Christ, after being treated in His crucifixion, as a new robe. First Christ was the unshrunk cloth for making a new garment, and then through His death and resurrection He was made a new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God so that we may be justified by God and acceptable to Him (Luke 15:22; Gal. 3:27). The old garment here signifies man's good behavior, good deeds, and religious practices by his natural life, the life of the old creation. If a patch made of unshrunk cloth is sewn on an old garment, it will take away from it, the new from the old, and the tear will become worse. To imitate what the Lord Jesus did in His human life on earth can be compared to putting a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Some try to imitate the human deeds of the Lord Jesus in order to improve their behavior, instead of believing in the crucified Jesus as their Redeemer and the resurrected Christ as their righteousness so that they may be justified by God and acceptable to Him. We should take the crucified and resurrected Christ as our new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God. We should not try to improve our behavior by imitating the Lord's human deeds. (c) Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Mark, pp. 86-87. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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