LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

66 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XV
Good works are called the fruits of the Spirit, Gal. v. for the Spirit worketh
them in us; and sometime fruits of righteousness …. Before all works,
therefore we must have a righteousness within the heart, the mother of all
works, and from whence they spring. 34
For Tyndale, justification consists of the bestowal of a heart of
righteousness, given by faith, which grows into good works. Like Luther, he
does speak of the Law of God showing what we are unable to do; yet he
tends to point to the ontological change wrought by the Spirit:
… but that by the law we might see and know our horrible damnation and
captivity under sin, and therefore should repent and come to Christ, and
receive mercy, and the Spirit of God to loose us, strength[en] us, and to make
us able to do God’s will, which is the law. 35
We are enslaved to sin, but faith receives the working of the Spirit. The
Spirit brings ontological change, enabling the fulfilling of the law:
Faith and trust in Christ expelleth the wrath of God; and bringeth favour, the
Spirit, power to do good, and everlasting life … and until his Spirit hath
loosed thine heart, thou canst not consent unto good works. All that is good
in us, both will and works, cometh of the favour of God, through Christ, to
whom be all the laud. Amen. 36
Notice that the favour of God given through Christ is not the imputation of
Christ’s alien righteousness, as Melanchthon came to describe it. The favour
of God is the grace to will and do good works. Faith gives the power to fulfil
the law:
The law killeth thy conscience, and giveth thee no lust to fulfil the law. Faith
in Christ giveth lust and power to do the law. Now is it true, that he which
doth the law is righteous; but that doth no man, save he that believeth and
putteth his trust in Christ. 37
Although Lutheran orthodoxy would speak of sanctification being Christ
working in us as a result of the power of the gospel, Tyndale speaks in terms
of justifying faith being the power to fulfil the law.
Like Augustine and the early Luther, The Mammon often speaks of
salvation as a healing process whereby Christ begins his work in us, but
takes us as just in anticipation of our full health:
A physician serveth but for sick men; and that for such sick men as feel their
sicknesses, and mourn therefore, and long for health. Christ likewise serveth
but for such sinners only as feel their sin, and that for such sinners that
34 Works 1:73-74.
35 Works 1:81.
36 Works 1:111.
37 Works 1:115.