LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

LEININGER: HOW LUTHERAN WAS WILLIAM TYNDALE 63
An illustration of Tyndale’s common use of organic metaphors to
describe justification comes from a discussion of original sin in The
Mammon. Although he speaks of the non-imputation of sin, a discussion of
the alien righteousness of Christ imputed onto the sinner is suspiciously
lacking. In fact, the concept of reputatio iustitiae Christi alienae is not found
in Tyndale’s soteriology, an omission which resonates with both Augustine
and the early Luther:
In Adam are we all, as it were, wild crab-trees, of which God chooseth whom
he will, and plucketh them out of Adam, and planteth them in the garden of
his mercy; and stocketh them, and grafteth the Spirit of Christ in them, which
bringeth forth the fruit of the will of God; which fruit testifieth that God hath
blessed us in Christ. Note this also; that, as long as we live, we are yet partly
carnal and fleshly, notwithstanding that we are in Christ, and though it be not
imputed unto us for Christ’s sake; for there abideth and remaineth in us yet of
the old Adam, as it were of the stock of the crab-tree … against whom we
must fight and subdue him, and change all his nature by little and little, with
prayer, fasting, and watching, with virtuous mediation and holy works, until
we be altogether spirit …. The leaven is the Spirit, and we the meal, which
must be seasoned with the Spirit by a little and a little, till we be throughout
spiritual. 28
Images such as the tree and fruit, leaven and meal, are common in Tyndale.
He uses them to point to the natural process whereby faith grows into the
spiritual life. Later Lutheran and Reformed theologians would place this
growth process in the area of sanctification. Tyndale has no such distinction
in his writings.
In his sermon on the Unjust Steward (1522) Luther concedes (as he
would elsewhere 29 ) that works can function as a sign to ourselves and others
that our faith is genuine—although the mature Luther would always
endeavour to place the assurance of salvation firmly in the wounds of Christ.
For our purposes, it is instructional to note where and how Tyndale
elaborates on Luther’s 1522 sermon. Speaking of the role of works which
show forth that goodness which we have received by faith, Tyndale writes in
The Mammon:
[Tyndale (underlined portions are Tyndale’s periphrastic translation of
Luther):] ‘Let your light so shine in the sight of men, that they may see your
good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.’ Or else were it as a
treasure digged in the ground, and hid wisdom, in the which there is no
profit.
28 Works 1:113.
29 In his Genesis commentary, for example, remarking on II Peter 1:10, “Sic Petrus iubet, ut
certificemus electionem nostrum per bona opera. Sunt enim Testimonium, quod gratia in
nobis sit efficax, et quod vocati et electi simus” (WA 42:669 20 =AE 3:169).