1912 Watch Tower - A2Z.org

us that we cannot merit eternal life, but that we must doall in our power to manifest that if we were perfect wewould keep God's Law, and that in proportion as we knowthe Divine will, the Divine Law, we should prove ourdesire to be in harmony with God by doing His will tothe best of our ability. The merit of Christ will off-set,R5071 page 240compensate for, the weaknesses of the flesh through heredity,and ultimately we shall attain to full perfection. Butnone except those who show their willingness to keep theLaw will reach this perfection; they must be willing tospare no efforts to keep that Law, so far as in them lies.TWO CLASSES RELEASED FROM ADAMIC CONDEMNATION"Where no Law is there is no transgression," for "sinis not imputed when there is no Law." (Rom. 415; 513.)The world has not yet come under individual condemnation;for the world has not yet been placed underDivine Law. Why not? Up to the present time the worldis under the Adamic sentence, and only those who arelifted out of that condemnation can come under anothersentence. The whole world was condemned to death underFather Adam, and mankind cannot be sentenced againuntil they get out from under the first condemnation.The only ones who have, in any sense of the word, beenreleased from this Adamic condemnation are two classes;the Natural Israelites and the Spiritual Israelites. TheJews could not be tried for life or death without a releasein one form or another from the Adamic condemnation.This release they obtained by the Law Covenant;but it was only typical, for the blood of bulls and goatscan never take away sin.--Heb. 104.The only ones who have been actually released arethose Jews who came under the Covenant of sacrifice,the Covenant which began with the Gospel Age withChrist, and those Gentiles who have entered into thisCovenant relationship with Christ. As many of these ashave entered into this relationship are on trial beforeDivine Law, and subject to eternal life or eternal deathunder that Law. If obedient to that Law they will geteternal life. If disobedient to that Law of the spirit oflife, and if they wilfully sin after having been begottenof the Spirit, they will get death.In the case of the Jew it would be the Second Deathif their Law Covenant had been the full and completeCovenant which God intended for them. But it was not;it was merely a tentative Covenant to give them a tentativeoffer of eternal life; it was simply a typical Covenant.The real one is that which God intended shouldcome in the New Covenant. "The days come, saith theLord, that I will make a New Covenant with the house ofIsrael and with the house of Judah; not according to theCovenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I