Guard the Good Deposit

22 • Guard the Good Deposit: The Great Tradition for the Whole Church

The Great Tradition makes the richness of the faith clear and simple through memorable, repeatable forms. Not everyone will study doctrine, but everyone can affirm with the Church ‘We believe in One God. . . . We believe in One Lord. . . . We believe in the Holy Spirit. . . .” Not everyone has access to pastoral manuals, but everyone can retell and reenact the Gospel through a simple order of the Word and the Table. Not everyone will craft clever and interesting sermon series, but everyone can follow along with the life of Jesus through the Church Year. The Great Tradition offers the whole Church the tools to guard the good deposit. The Power of God for Salvation So then, why must we guard the good deposit? We must guard the good deposit because the Gospel is the power of God for salvation! For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Rom. 1.16). Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. He is the spotless lamb slain for our sin, he is conquering lion who crushes the serpent’s head. He will return one day to put all his enemies under his feet and make all things new. The simple facts of the Gospel are the very power of salvation. This message, this Gospel, has been entrusted to us like a treasure put in a common breakable clay pot (2 Cor. 4.7) We are ambassadors of Christ, and through us God announces salvation for the world (2 Cor. 5.20).