What do you celebrate in life? What milestones and anniversaries make their way onto your family and social calendars?
These tend to be the moments that mark our lives, that testify to the special moments we long to recall and remember; for others to reflect on after our time on Earth is done. The anniversaries and moments that form our life’s legacy in this world.
This July marks a key anniversary in the life of the evangelical church: the 500th anniversary of William Tyndale’s translation of the Bible into English.
A legacy of fulfilled promise
So what is the legacy of Tyndale? Why is this anniversary such a testimony not only of the life of one man, but a testimony and legacy for the life of the church?
This is a testimony of the continuing sovereign, gracious hand of the Lord over His church, and the continuing accomplishment of His promise to send His word out to His world.
Throughout generations, throughout social, monarchical and ecclesiastical conflict, God’s sovereign purpose to fill and feed the hearts of His children with His Word has held fast. That He raises up faithful men to teach each generation, to bring the Word of God to real, living, enacting power in the lives of God’s image bearers is a testimony to His mercy and grace in using His beloved children to partner in His fatherly, kingly work.
God's sovereign, purposeful placing of Tyndale to follow Erasmus, and to grow up reading his translation of the Greek New Testament is a testimony. God’s all-knowing, wise placing of Tyndale within the Walsh family, serving as tutor to Sir John Walsh’s children, talking passionately about all he was reading and learning from Erasmus’ translation of the Bible, sharing with them of the "good, glad and joyful" news that "make our hearts leap for joy."
God’s Word had gripped Tyndale’s heart, filled him with renewed courage and hope, and flowed freely from him to bless those around him. His evangelical, enamoured and affectionate language when speaking of the gospel was far from comfortable to a family used to serving and parenting by legalistic obedience rather than by grace-bound covenant. All language of condition, of 'if, then', of obedience leading to reward; all reliance on rewards earned or achieved before God for approval suddenly felt like shifting sand when confronted with the security and steadfast gospel of God, grace-given, faith and life in Christ.
Tyndale’s passion to bring the true gospel of Jesus Christ and see others living in true life to the full in Christ was, and is still an example of a life lived to the glory of God. His longing for all to know and live by faith in Christ through grace alone, in Christ alone, made his life mission simple. "I will cause a boy who drives the plough to know more of the Scriptures than you do." he declared to Sir John. And Tyndale was a man who knew the power lay not in flesh, not incommunication skills, not in a passionate, extrovert personality, not in knowledge of doctrine, but by Spirit, and the very Word of God inspired by Him, written by Him and by faithful men writing in and through His power, counsel and leading.
So Tyndale translated the Bible from the original Greek and Hebrew into English. He gifted the church and the world the very Word of God in the language of the everyman. His was a translation that chose carefully which words to use, that spoke of repentance and love, rather than language that had become associated with Catholic practice, words such as 'charity'.
He believed in the power of Scripture to convict and change men’s hearts. He did not shy away from presenting the full gospel: "Scripture looks at the heart and the root and original fountain of all sin which is unbelief in the bottom of the heart."
His life's work was committed to uncovering and speaking truth, of exposing the lies that grip men’s hearts. The lies that we still believe, that betray the state of our wandering hearts. The lies that say we can feast and fill up on the world’s pleasures, that satisfying our fleshly appetites and pleasures will satisfy and give us life. Tyndale knew that God’s Word, that Christ alone and Him exalted and revealed in the Scriptures, was the only true bread of life.
His life’s work was the death of him. As with his Reformer forebears, his unashamed sole-focus enraged the stubborn hearts of men around him and led to his death. There was nothing notional about Tyndale’s life-goal, nothing dry about his doctrine.
His was a life of a boy who read of, and received the best news he’d ever heard; who was so gripped and captivated by this Christ revealed in the Scriptures that He walked in step with the Spirit with bold, beautiful simplicity. Here was a man who relied on and knew the power of God’s Word alone to bring hope, healing and true transformation to the lost human hearts around him.
His legacy is ours, and like him, we can come to our Heavenly Father as little children, beloved by Him and offer ourselves to be used in His work of sending out His word to a desperate and needy world. Through all the complexity and chaos that may arise on the course God sets for us, the goal remains beautifully simple: to bring the Word of God, the Words of the Father to call His children home to Him, knowing that God will accomplish His purpose, that His Word will not, cannot, return empty.
