What Paul Actually Deposited
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”
1 Corinthians 15:3–4 · ESV
For three weeks we have been circling 2 Timothy 2:2 and the command to make disciples. A fair question comes next. When Paul told Timothy to entrust “what you have heard from me” to faithful men, what exactly had Timothy heard? What is in the deposit?
Paul answers in 1 Corinthians 15, and he answers like a courier, not an author. “I delivered to you what I also received.” He did not compose the message. He carried it. And when he sets it down, it is remarkably compact: Christ died for our sins, he was buried, he was raised on the third day. Facts, with their meaning attached. Not merely that Christ died, but that he died for our sins. Not merely that something happened, but that it happened in accordance with the Scriptures, twice over, the whole thing rooted in God’s promises long before it unfolded outside Jerusalem.
Notice also the ranking. Paul delivered this “as of first importance.” He knew plenty else, and he taught plenty else. But he kept first things first, and he named what the first thing was.
Here is why this matters for disciplemaking. It is entirely possible to hand a man everything except the deposit. A meeting rhythm. Accountability questions. A Bible reading plan. Habits worth having, every one. But those are the wrapping, not the contents. A discipling relationship can run for two years on technique and transfer no gospel at all, and what multiplies then is activity, not faith. The method is the envelope. The gospel is the letter.
There is also relief in this. If the deposit were something you had to invent, disciplemaking would belong to the creative. It is not, so it belongs to the faithful. A courier does not need to be brilliant. He needs to know what he is carrying, guard it, and hand it over intact. The man who can say “Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised, just as the Scriptures promised” — and can say why that matters to the man across the table — is carrying the same deposit Paul carried.
From the Field
This is why Operation Timothy, the discipling tool used across DMM’s ministry, begins with the gospel itself rather than with behavior. Before a man is asked to change how he lives, he is walked through who Christ is and what Christ has done. The same content travels into Walker State Prison and into partner churches unchanged, because the deposit does not vary with the audience.
This Week
If your Timothy repeated only what you have actually passed on to him, would he have the gospel?
Go Deeper
What Is the Gospel?
Greg Gilbert (Crossway, 9Marks). One hundred small pages that state the deposit plainly: God, man, Christ, response. Worth reading once a year.
The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ
Ray Ortlund (Crossway, 9Marks). Shows what happens to a community when the content of the gospel shapes its culture, not just its statements.
Operation Timothy
DMM. The tool built to walk two people through the deposit itself, one conversation at a time.
Next week: sound words as a pattern — 2 Timothy 1:13 and why doctrine is a discipleship issue.
Lee Truax
President, DiscipleMaking Mission
