Verse 12 established that little children are alive in Yahweh-Messiah and Mormon repeats that concept for emphasis. He has already propounded this argument but recasts it in different words. The slight expansion is the comparison of the little children to those who are without law. The ability to understand and properly judge according to the law of the gospel is a blessing because it allows us to progress. It is also our curse in that it allows us to sin. Without that law, however, neither possibility exists. We cannot become perfect (Matt. 5:48; 3 Ne. 12:48) without the law, but neither can we be condemned. Those two conditions are part and parcel of the effect of agency, an effect that cannot be fully active until we know the difference between good and evil. Symbolically, at the age of accountability, we, too, eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.