Guard the Good Deposit

Section III: How Do We Guard the Good Deposit? • 39

Again, the Creed is not a substitute for memorizing Scripture. It simply arms us with the clear understanding of the big picture of what we believe.

How Do We Retrieve the Nicene Creed?

Use the Nicene Creed to make sense of the Bible. Personal Bible study is extremely important. However, you should never think that Christianity is simply what you discover in personal Bible study. We don’t need to reinvent the good deposit. The Nicene Creed helps put it all together for us. Here are three practical ways you can use the Creed to make sense of the Bible. 1. Keep the big picture in mind . God is the same God working the same purposes from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. It can be easy to get lost in the laws of Leviticus or the stories of the Judges. While there is always more to learn about the Bible, never forget that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are always working to destroy the works of the devil and redeem the world. 2. Christ is the central theme, subject, and character in the Bible. He is promised, hoped for, and pictured in the Old Testament. He is revealed and explained in the New. No matter what you are reading, he is always the final meaning of Scripture. Find him and you find the way, the truth, and the life (John 14.6). 3. Refuse the temptation to make the Bible about you and your life. The Bible is not a self-help book, an