William Tyndale on Justification
Forensic — righteousness imputed, not infused
By justifying, understand the forgiveness of sins and the favour of God.
THE POSITION
Justification is forgiveness and God's favour, received by faith alone, and works justify only before people, as evidence that the faith is real. That is how he reconciles Paul and James in his prologue to James: "as faith only justifieth before God, so do deeds only justify before the world." He defines the word the same way in the Romans prologue: to be reconciled to God, restored to his favour, and have your sins forgiven.
3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
22 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
English translator of the New Testament from Greek and of the Pentateuch from Hebrew, working in exile in the Low Countries, whose wording runs through the King James Version. He was strangled and burned at Vilvoorde in 1536. He was also the first English Protestant theologian of weight, defending justification by faith, the authority of Scripture over the church, and the obedience owed to kings. This entry rests on the Obedience of a Christian Man, the Answer to Sir Thomas More, the Brief Declaration of the Sacraments, the exposition of 1 John and his biblical prologues, all in the Parker Society edition (1848–1850).
Cite this page
"William Tyndale on Justification", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/tyndale/justification (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/tyndale/justification).