The True Hero of the Reformation

It is right to celebrate and remember the Reformation. In this brief clip, Burk Parsons explains how, in our celebration of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others, we need to remember the true hero of the Reformation—God Himself.

This Reformation Month, watch a short video every day on the history and insights of the Protestant Reformation. And don't forget that for this month only, you can request your free digital download of R.C. Sproul’s video teaching series Luther and the Reformation plus the ebook edition of The Legacy of Luther, edited by R.C. Sproul and Stephen Nichols at ligm.in/Reformation. Offer ends October 31, 2019.

Transcript

It is appropriate that we would come together to celebrate and remember the Reformation. It is right and good to do so. As soon as we draw our gaze to Luther and to Calvin and to the other magisterial Reformers of the sixteenth century, as soon as we begin talking about them and praising them, they would be the first to say you’re praising the wrong one. Luther and Calvin and the other Reformers would draw our attentions and our gazes to Christ alone. They would tell us to fix our attentions on the gospel of Jesus Christ. They would say it is right to see what God has done. It is appropriate to celebrate what the Spirit has done.

But they would be the first to say that they themselves were not by any means the heroes of the Reformation but that God was the hero of the Reformation. The Word of God was the hero of the Reformation. The Spirit of God was the hero of the Reformation. It was God who, by His sovereignty and by His grace and by his power, led these humble sinners to serve Him, giving them the stewardship and the message of the gospel to expound it and the whole counsel of God for the people of God so that God’s people from every tribe, tongue, and nation from all around the world might hear that gospel that had been hidden and bound and chained for so long.