Guard the Good Deposit

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

One of the simplest ways that the Church Year helps us follow Christ is it focuses our attention. It focuses our minds and hearts on the Bible’s own important themes and ideas. It helps guide us through Scripture, but also allows room for spontaneity and adaptation.

Reborn to Serve: Our Witness If our retrieval of the Great Tradition does not include a retrieval of radical witness, we miss the mark. Early Christians literally died to spread the Gospel. They were hunted and killed, and yet they persisted. They gave their lives because they represented Christ and his Kingdom. Guarding the good deposit will mean embracing our identity as agents of God’s Kingdom. It will mean that we become representatives (or ambassadors) of Christ.

Why Do We Need to Represent Christ and His Kingdom?

We need to represent because the world is under the power of the evil one. Those without Christ are described in the New Testament as being in the dominion of darkness (Col. 1.13), the power of Satan (Acts 26.18), under the power of the evil one (1 John 5.19), blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4.4), children of the devil (1 John 3.10), and children of wrath (Eph. 2.3).