Question 327: What Is To Understood By Putting “New Cloth On Old Garment”?

Answer:

The new is really the un-shrunken cloth which, when it became wet and dried, would draw and strain the old garment, making a greater rent. The meaning was that at that time the most intelligent Jews, such as Nicodemus, were hailing Moshiach as a reformer. They were mistaken. His religion was not a new patch on the old. The old could not be mended, but must give place to His new religion. A specimen of this futile attempt was seen in the struggle to force the old Jewish Laws on the Gentiles, which was repudiated (see Acts 15:1-21).