Search
In this message we will cover further aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. All these aspects are related to experiencing and enjoying Christ as the most pleasant person.
In Matthew 9:1-8 we see that Christ is the Forgiver of sins. “Behold, they brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Take courage, child; your sins are forgiven” (v. 2). This word was probably a shock to the paralytic and to those who had brought him to the Lord. They no doubt had never thought that the cause of his illness was sin. But much to their surprise, the Lord Jesus told the paralytic that his sins were forgiven.
As fallen human beings, our basic problem is our sin, even our sins. All the problems of mankind are the result of sin. Because of sin, the situation of fallen mankind is hopeless. Because of sin, everyone has been corrupted. Because all the problems of mankind are the result of sin, sin must be dealt with if people are to be restored to God. We need Christ as the Forgiver of sins. On the day we believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him, our sins were forgiven.
Matthew 9:6a indicates that it is as the Son of Man that the Lord Jesus is the Forgiver of our sins. The One who forgave the sins of the paralytic was actually the forgiving God in the form of a lowly man. He was the incarnation of the forgiving God. When the Lord Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic, His deity was manifested in His humanity.
Verse 6 reveals that “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” To forgive sins is a matter of authority on earth. Only the Lord Jesus, who had been authorized by God and who would die to redeem sinners, has such authority (Acts 5:31; 10:43; 13:38). Because the Lord Jesus is the God-man, He has not only the ability to save sinners but also the authority to forgive their sins.
Matthew 9:10-13 indicates that we also may experience and enjoy Christ as the Physician. In calling people to follow Him for the kingdom, the Lord Jesus ministered as a Physician, not as a Judge. A judge’s judgment is according to righteousness, whereas a physician’s healing is according to mercy and grace. If the Lord Jesus had visited us as a Judge, we all would have been condemned and rejected. None of us would have been qualified, selected, and called to be the people of the heavenly kingdom. However, He came to minister as a Physician, to heal, recover, enliven, and save us, that we might be reconstituted to be His new and heavenly citizens, with whom He is establishing His heavenly kingdom on this corrupted earth.
“But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (v. 13). The Lord’s word here, addressed to the Pharisees, indicates that the Lord Jesus heals man’s spiritual illness, the illness of sin. Sin came first and death follows. Between sin and death there are all kinds of illnesses, diseases, and infirmities. The Lord Jesus forgives our sins and also heals us in every way. As sinners, we are sick absolutely, for we are sick physically, spiritually, morally, and mentally. But Jesus, the Forgiver and the Physician, is able to heal all our sicknesses.
As our Physician, the Lord heals us mainly in our spirit and in our soul, not mainly in our body. The tax collectors and sinners in Matthew 9:10 were not physically sick; they were spiritually sick. While the Lord Jesus was feasting with them, He was healing them spiritually. Likewise, although the Lord may or may not heal us in our body, He is always ready to heal us in every part of our spirit and soul.
As the Physician, the Lord Jesus is not for the righteous but for sinners. The Lord “did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” There is none righteous, not even one (Rom. 3:10). All “the righteous” are self-righteous like the Pharisees (Luke 18:9). The Lord came to call not them but sinners.
The Lord’s use of the word righteous in Matthew 9:13 is related to the matter of sins. This word also indicates that the healing of the Lord as our Physician is not mainly physical but spiritual. He is the One who heals our spiritual sicknesses.
In Matthew 9:14 the disciples of John asked the Lord Jesus, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but Your disciples do not fast?” In His answer, the Lord revealed Himself as the Bridegroom. “Jesus said to them, The sons of the bridechamber cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast” (v. 15). Matthew 25:1 is a further word concerning the Lord Jesus as the Bridegroom. This verse reveals that the Lord will come back as the Bridegroom, as the pleasant and attractive person.
The Bible reveals that Christ is God embodied to have the bride. Therefore, Christ’s status is that of the Bridegroom. As the Bridegroom, He is the pleasant person for our enjoyment. When He is present, there is no need of fasting. When He is present, there should not be any sadness. Instead, everything should be pleasant.
In dealing with the self-righteous Pharisees, the Lord indicated that He is the Physician to heal the sick. In dealing with the fasting disciples of John, He revealed Himself as the Bridegroom coming for the bride. John the Baptist had indicated to his disciples that Christ is the Bridegroom (John 3:25-29), and in Matthew 9:15 the Lord Jesus reminded them of this. The Lord first healed His followers, then made them sons of the bridechamber. Eventually, He will make them His bride. Thus, they should appreciate Him not only as their Physician for the recovery of life but also as their Bridegroom for a living enjoyment in His presence. They were at a joyful wedding with Him, not at a sorrowful funeral without Him. How then could they fast and not feast before Him?
The question raised by John’s disciples seems to be one of doctrine. However, the Lord did not answer with a doctrine but with the revelation of Himself as the Bridegroom with the sons of the bridechamber.
As the Bridegroom, Christ is for the enjoyment of the sons of the bridechamber. The phrase sons of the bridechamber refers to the disciples of the Lord. In the transitory period of the Lord’s ministry on earth, His disciples were sons of the bridechamber, those who are with the Bridegroom in His chamber, gazing on Him and enjoying His presence. Later they would become the bride (John 3:29; Rev. 19:7).
In Matthew 9:16 Christ refers to Himself as unshrunk, or unfulled, cloth. “No one puts a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment, for that which fills it up pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear is made.” The Greek word translated unfulled may also be translated “new,” “raw,” “unwrought.” The Greek word here is agnaphos, formed with a, which means “not,” and gnapto, which means “to card or comb wool”; hence, “to dress or full the cloth.” Thus, the word means “uncarded,” “unfulled,” “unfinished,” “unshrunk,” “untreated.” This unshrunk cloth signifies Christ from His incarnation to His crucifixion as a piece of new cloth, untreated, unfinished, whereas the new garment in Luke 5:36 signifies Christ after being “treated” in His crucifixion as a new robe. Christ was first 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 that we might be justified by God and acceptable to Him (Luke 15:22; Gal. 3:27; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9).
Christ as the unshrunk cloth is not for patching an old garment. The old garment in Matthew 9:16 signifies man’s good behavior, good deeds, and religious practices by his old natural life. A patch of unshrunk cloth put on an old garment pulls away from the garment by its shrinking strength, thus making the tear worse. Putting a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment signifies trying to imitate what Christ did in His human life on earth. Today some imitate Jesus’ human deeds in the attempt to improve their behavior without believing in the crucified Jesus as their Redeemer and the resurrected Christ as their new garment to cover them as their righteousness before God.
The Lord’s word in verse 16 indicates that we should never cut a piece of His unshrunk cloth and use it to mend the “holes” in our garments. His cloth is full of shrinking power, and when applied to old garments it will simply cause the holes in them to become larger. Christ is not for patching; He is for replacing. We cannot take Him in part; we must take Him as a whole. If we try to take a part of Christ for patching our old garments, the Lord will not agree. Christ does not intend to make perfect what is imperfect. Therefore, we must surrender to Him, put ourselves aside, and take Christ as a whole.
As unshrunk cloth, Christ was indeed wonderful but not adequate to cover us. Such cloth was new, but it was not in a suitable condition for us to wear. It required some work to be done on it, a work that was accomplished when Christ was on the cross. On the cross the Lord Jesus was treated; that is, He was dealt with by man and even more by God. Then in resurrection He became a new garment. Before His crucifixion He was unshrunk cloth, but after His resurrection He is the new garment for us to put on. This new garment is Christ as our righteousness to cover us outwardly.
The Christ we apply today is not Christ before His crucifixion. Rather, the Christ we apply is the One who has made Himself into a new garment through His death and resurrection. Now we may put Him on as a complete garment to cover our entire being. In this way Christ, the pleasant person as the new garment, replaces us with Himself.
In Matthew 9:17 the Lord Jesus says, “Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined.” The Greek word translated new in this verse is neos, which means “new in time,” “recent,” “young.” The new wine here signifies Christ as the new life, full of vigor and cheering strength, stirring us to excitement and satisfying us. When we receive His life, it works within us to stir us up, excite us, energize us, and make us happy. As the new wine, Christ is our content, the provision for our inward thirst.
Whereas the new garment is Christ as our outward covering, the new wine is Christ as our inward cheering. As we contact the Lord, we should take Him not only as the new garment to cover us but also as the new wine to cheer us and to stir us up. The more we contact the Lord, the more He, the new wine, will make us cheerful. He surely is a most pleasant person!
In verse 17 the Lord Jesus says that we should not put new wine into old wineskins. Old wineskins signify religious forms, rituals, and practices. All religions are old wineskins. New wine put into old wineskins will burst the wineskins by its fermenting power. To put new wine into old wineskins is to put Christ as the exciting life into any kind of religion. We should never try to put the wine of Christ’s life into the wineskin of old religious practices, for the wine will burst those practices. The new wine of Christ as life requires a new wineskin.
New wine is to be put into fresh wineskins. According to the Lord’s word in verse 17, if we put new wine into fresh wineskins, “both are preserved.” The Greek word rendered fresh here is kainos, which means “new in nature, quality, or form; unaccustomed, unused”; hence, “fresh.” The fresh wineskins signify the church life in the local churches as the container of the new wine, which is Christ Himself as the exciting life. The believers are built into the church, and the church is expressed through the local churches in which they live. The believers are regenerated persons constituting the Body of Christ to be the church (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:22-23). This Body of Christ as His fullness is also called “the Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12), the corporate Christ. The individual Christ is the new wine, the exciting life inwardly, and the corporate Christ is the fresh wineskin, the container to hold the new wine outwardly. We need to experience and enjoy Christ as the Forgiver, the Physician, the Bridegroom, the new garment, and the new wine that we may be the fresh wineskin to contain Him.
The new wineskin is actually the church life. The church is the enlargement of Christ. The individual Christ is the wine within us. When this individual Christ is enlarged into a corporate Christ, that is the church. This corporate Christ is the wineskin, the container, to contain the individual Christ as our wine.
Christ is not only the new garment and the new wine, but, being increased, He is also our new wineskin to contain the wine. He is our outward qualification, He is our inward satisfaction, and in a corporate way He is the church, the Body, which is capable of holding the wine. From this we see that Christ is everything for our experience and enjoyment. He is the Forgiver, the Physician, the Bridegroom, the new garment, the new wine, and also the new wineskin, the corporate vessel to contain and express what we enjoy of Him.
