LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

LEININGER: HOW LUTHERAN WAS WILLIAM TYNDALE 71
continue in grace, and come to that salvation and glorious resurrection of
Christ, thou must work and join works to thy faith, in will and deed too …. 50
Although Tyndale enthusiastically preached justification by faith, 51 it is
evident that his understanding of the nature of justification, especially in his
later writings, included the Augustinian idea of the gift of the “power to
work”, making Tydale’s soteriology as a whole impossible to reconcile with
the mature Luther.
CONCLUSION
One of the difficulties in contrasting Tyndale with Luther is that we need to
know which Luther influenced Tyndale. Much of Tyndale’s soteriology is
reminiscent of the early Luther. My suggestion is that Tyndale’s natural
tendency to focus on the effects of faith in the ethical life resonated with
Luther’s transitional theology during the early to mid 1520s; and that once
he left Wittenberg, Tyndale missed exposure to Melanchthon’s forensic
insights. Tyndale’s tendencies then grew into a more pronounced legalism
during the 1530s. Perhaps we could say that Tyndale learned enough Luther
to get himself into trouble, but not enough Melanchthon to get him out again.
If Luther asked, “Where can I find a gracious God”, Tyndale’s question
remained, “How can a gracious God change my life”—anticipating portions
of contemporary evangelicalism.
And what of the Lutheran church at Kentish Town, London Should
Luther-Tyndale change its name Considering that Tyndale compromised
the two most distinctive elements of Lutheran theology—the real presence
and justification—one might argue that the “Tyndale” half should be
dropped. And yet the name “Tyndale” more than anything else represents a
love for God’s Word in the hearts and minds and lives of His people. Whilst
in fear for his life during his continental exile and amid his pleas for a
vernacular Bible for the English people, Tyndale offered the following to
Henry VIII:
If it would stand with the King’s most gracious pleasure to grant only a bare
text of the Scripture to be put forth among his people … I shall immediately
make faithful promise never to write more, nor abide two days in these parts
after the same; but immediately to repair into his realm [England], and there
most humbly submit myself at the feet of his Royal Majesty, offering my
body to suffer what pain and torture, yea, what death his grace will, so this be
50 Works 3:276.
51 See his earlier comments on Tracy’s testament: “And that this trust and confidence in the
mercy of God is through Jesus Christ, is the second article of our creed, confirmed and
testified throughout all scripture.” Works 3:274.