1950 This Means Everlasting Life - A2Z.org

NO SELF-SALVATION BY THE LAW 55
10 To carry out their part of the covenant and
be Jehovah's holy nation the Israelites were commanded
to keep clean from this world and its pollutions
. This was required for attaining to life in
God's way : "And ye shall observe my statutes and
my judgments, by which the man that doeth them
shall live : I am Jehovah ." Leviticus 18 :5, Dar.
The Israelites disobeyed and failed to keep separate
from this world ; they adopted the ways of this
world and became stained with its sins and practices
in violation of the Ten Commandments . The
honest-hearted among the Israelites found that
God's law was good but that they could not keep
it perfectly. Instead of proving to be a means of
gaining life for them by deeds of self-righteousness,
the Law condemned them as sinners. It
gave to them the knowledge of what sin was by
naming and describing it, and it therefore more
forcefully proved to them that they were just
as much sinners as people who were not natural
descendants of Abraham. Jews today cannot deny
the charge .
11 "For above we have made the charge that
Jews as well as Greeks are all under sin ; just as it
is written : There is not a righteous man, not even
one ; there is not a one that understands, there is
not a one that seeks for God . All men have deflected,
all of them together have become worthless ;
there is not a one that does good, there is not so
much as one.' Now we know that all the things
10, 11 . a Did the Law prove to be a means for Jews
to gain life? b By the Law what came to them?
How so?