LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

LEININGER: HOW LUTHERAN WAS WILLIAM TYNDALE 69
heaven, so thou wilt be diligent to learn. And I will assist thee, and keep thee
…’ 42
Note also the proleptic language, here: God will take “all a worth” our
present efforts, despite their weakness; “that little we have is taken a worth
[as of worth], and accepted till more come.” 43
Tyndale never completely embraces the declarative aspects of
justification and in The Answer to More points to a facitive righteousness
reminiscent of the Augustinianism of the early Luther:
Now then, to love the law of God, and to consent thereto, and to have it
written in thine heart, and to profess it, so that thou art ready of thine own
accord to do it and without compulsion, is to be righteous: that I grant, and
that love may be called righteousness before God, passive, and the life and
quickness of the soul, passive. And so far forth as a man loveth the law of
God, so far forth he is righteous …. And that thing which maketh a man love
the law of God, doth make a man righteous, and justifieth him effectively and
actually; and maketh him alive, as a workman and cause efficient …. Even so
the preaching of faith doth work love in our souls, and make them alive, and
draw our hearts to God. 44
Passive righteousness is not the alien righteousness of Christ received by
faith, but a passive receiving of love of the law of God. Similarly, in The
Exposition of 1 John Tyndale comments concerning the disposition towards
loving which we receive by faith and which makes us right before God:
Love is the instrument wherewith faith maketh us God’s sons, and fashioneth
us like the image of God, and certifieth us that we so are. 45
III. Tyndale’s mature theology, 1533-36
Works of the “mature” Tyndale include his Exposition upon the Fifth, Sixth,
and Seventh Chapters of Matthew (1533) [hereafter abbreviated Exposition
of Matthew], based on a Lutheran original; an edition of the New Testament
(1534), including prefaces and marginal notes; a second edition of the
Pentateuch (1534), with the prologue revised and the translation of Genesis
slightly altered; a commentary upon the will of William Tracy, found among
Tyndale’s papers after his 1536 execution; and A Brief Declaration of the
Sacraments, published posthumously.
In these works Tyndale expands his emphasis on the transformation of
man’s moral being—his ethical imperatives—into a form of covenant
42 Works 3:195.
43 Works 3:206.
44 Works 3:205.
45 Works 2:200.