“If, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor” (Gal. 2:17, 18 RSV)

Jesus is “the Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14 RSV). “In Him is no sin” (1 Jn. 3:5 KJV). He not only “committed no sin” (1 Pet. 2:22), but also “knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). Therefore it is impossible that any sin can come from Him. He does not impart sin. In the stream of life that flows from the heart of Christ through His wounded side there is no trace of impurity. He is not the minister [the agent] of sin; that is, He does not minister sin to anybody.

If in anyone who has sought and found righteousness through Christ, there is afterward found sin, it is because the person has damned up the stream, allowing the water to become stagnant. The Word has not been given free course. And where there is no activity, there is death. No one is to be blamed for this, but the person himself.

If a Christian tears down or destroys his sins through Christ then later builds those sins back up, he again becomes a lawbreaker in need of Christ.

That which is destroyed is the body of sin, and it is destroyed only by the personal presence of the life of Christ. It is destroyed for everybody, for Christ in His own flesh has abolished the “enmity,” the sinner’s carnal mind. Our sins, our weaknesses, were upon Him. For every soul the victory has been gained, and the enemy has been disarmed. We have only to accept the victory which Christ has won. Our faith makes it real to us. The loss of faith puts us outside the reality, and the old body of sin looms up again. That which is destroyed by faith is built up again by unbelief.

This is a present personal matter with each individual.

Waggoner, The Glad Tidings, pp. 42,43