“What the Apostle calls the just and the unjust, our Lord in our text calls the good and the evil. That neither the Lord nor the Apostle meant to intimate that any of mankind are good, perfect in the absolute sense, is most evident from the trend of the Scriptures, which assure us in various forms that the whole race is fallen, that “there is none righteous, no not one.” The good then of our Lord’s statement, the just of the Apostle’s statement, are those who are justified in God’s sight through faith, justified from sin, their sins covered, not imputed to them, because of their having accepted the divine arrangement and because they are seeking to walk in the Lord’s way. (Harvest Gleanings 2, Page 284)

What is this divine arrangement which these have these accepted?

That is to say what is it that justifies them in the eyes of the LORD and which declares them to be designated as the good as opposed to the rest of their fellow men who are declared unjust or evil, wicked (the Lord’s words not ours)?

Presently the divine arrangement is this, that at the “acceptable time” (i.e., during this the Gospel Age, 2 Cor 6:2) such as receive of “the call”, the one and only calling presently being offered at this time (Eph 4:4) the call to sacrifice and to a covenant arrangement with the Father (Rom 12: 1; Psa 50:5) an honor which no man may take unto himself save he who is specifically called by LORD himself (Heb 5:4) is that by becoming a joint participator in Christ sufferings, being made conformable to his death, his baptism (Rom 6:3; 1 Cor 10:16) such a one shall receive of the imputation of the merit of Christ’ righteousness to cover their natural imperfection.

God’s arrangement being that nothing shall come to His altar except that which is without blemish. We cannot come; therefore, except as our Lord Jesus shall make up wherein we are short of perfection. Christ has proposed to do this, in order that you and I may give acceptable sacrifices through Him.

“The Apostle explains the situation elsewhere, saying, “The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4) These cannot walk up to the spirit of God’s law, because of their inherited blemishes under the fall; but since these are covered by God’s grace in Christ, such as are walking to the best of their ability after the spirit of God’s law are reckoned as though walking up to the spirit of that law. In their minds (the new mind) they are up to the standard, and their flesh approximates perfection as closely as may be from day to day.” (Harvest Gleanings 2, Page 284)

It should be rightfully understood that it is the “New Creature” upon whom the law is said to be fulfilled NOT the old man, the flesh.

“The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us as New Creatures. It is not fulfilled in our flesh because in our flesh dwells no perfection. You cannot bring perfection out of an imperfect body. The New Creature desires to do perfectly. We desire that every act and thought might be pleasing and acceptable to God, but we cannot do all that we would. We can however do a great deal towards it and we can gain many victories along this line, and although we may continue to make progress in this direction, yet we cannot hope to reach the point where we shall be able to do perfectly. We can only do with the imperfect body which we have. We cannot do with the body which we have not yet got. We can only use the old body with the new mind.

It is the New Creature in whom the righteousness of the law will be fulfilled. First of all, God counted our flesh as dead before He received us. It would not be the flesh, therefore, that would keep God’s law. It is the New Creature in us, the new creature in which the righteousness of the law is fulfilled, and if we are doing this to the extent of our ability the spirit of the law is fulfilled in us as new creatures–in our hearts, our minds, our intentions, our endeavors–and that is what God is judging who knows us not after the flesh, but after the spirit- -according to this spirit He judges us. In the mind we keep this law, loving God with all our minds and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves. But more than this, we seek to follow in the foot-steps of Jesus and to lay down our earthly privileges as He did (which includes our earthly life rights, restitution rights, secured to us through the ransom sacrifice) in order that we might exercise the spirit that was in Him in the service of the Father and become more and more like Him, and ultimately share His glory. (Q603)

What does this imply as in regards to our subject?

Well very simply it implies that only those begotten to a new nature, new creatures in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:17) “the Anointed” as our JW friends like to refer to them as, having received of the imputation of Christ merit are declared in God’s sight as the righteous, the just, the good.

Likewise, this implies that all who have not received of this imputation of Christ’ merit who have not been begotten to a new nature who are yet still natural men remain in their sins, not having yet been justified in the fullest sense*. The merit of Christ righteousness being mortgaged to the Church its application to the world must await the completion of the body of Christ and the inauguration of the New Covenant.

*As is pictured in the Tabernacle believers who have yet to have taken the “Second Step” of a full and complete consecration to sacrifice although occupying the “courtyard condition” are still only presently said to be tentatively justified. Faith justified; NOT actually justified.

(For a better understanding of this matter, please see our blog post entitled, “Tentative and Vitalized Justification”, also our other post entitled, “The Only Way” specifically beginning with Part 6.)

What all this implies is that not only are the majority of mankind considered as evil, unrighteous, unjust, wicked, but equally so every JW saved those who are truly of the Anointed class are likewise considered so, this would include our friend Victor here and any other JW not of the Anointed class.

Now if as Victor quotes from Jer 25:31 only ‘the wicked ones will be given to the sword’ and it is his contention that this be Second Death then this would naturally according to the Scriptures INCLUDE HIMSELF.

Thankfully we do not believe the Scriptures to teach such a God dishonoring doctrine (this simply because it is not just). We have more to say but we will leave that for our next post.