Sin Vs. Iniquity

[motherprayer]

This was brought up in Sunday School at church.

What is the difference between sin and iniquity?

I find this a VERY interesting question, because many Bible verses state that as Christians we should depart from iniquity, but it nearly always is "iniquity" used there, whereas when "sin" is used, it is when stating that all are guilty of it.
Iniquity:
Matthew 23:28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Romans 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Sin:

Matthew 9:6 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

Matthew 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

Luke 7:47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

Romans 3:7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

Romans 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

This last is interesting. If sin and iniquity were truly the same thing, why say it twice? Especially when you read the context. Paul said this during a "speech" if you will about how our works don't help us with God to create righteousness.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[Fireinfolding]

Here the two are mentioned equally according to the dominion

Psalm 119:33 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Here twofold

Romans 4:7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

 

[motherprayer]

Equal, but same?

 

[Fireinfolding]

Equal, but same?

To me they appear to be used interchangeably, sin (or iniquity) having dominion "over us", check their definitions also. Then speaks of forgiving our sins (or inquities) both can be shown either plural (sin, sins) or singular (iniquity, iniquities).

Look at the definition though, differnt word (agreed) but for the most part they can be found used according to the same thing, whether to sin not, or depart from inquity, or the dominion (in respects to either) are mentioned.

Maybe someone else can give you a bit more on this

 

[ebedmelech]

I hope this link helps you:

Sin, Transgression, Iniquity. |

It's a very good explanation and it saved me the typing...

 

[Johnnz]

Parallelism was commonly Hebrew is Hebrew literature. The three words all convey wrongdoing.

Here is some useful comment.

INIQUITY
±awon OT:5771, "iniquity; guilt; punishment." This noun, which appears 231 times in the Old Testament, is limited to Hebrew and biblical Aramaic. The prophetic and poetic books employ ±awon with frequency. The Pentateuch as a whole employs the word about 50 times. In addition to these, the historical books infrequently use ±awon. The first use of ±awon comes from Cain's lips, where the word takes the special meaning of "punishment": "And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear" Gen 4:13.

The most basic meaning of ±awon is "iniquity." The word signifies an offense, intentional or not, against God's law. This meaning is also most basic to the word chatta°t, "sin," in the Old Testament, and for this reason the words chatta°t and ±awon are virtually synonymous; "Lo, this [the live coal] hath touched thy [Isaiah's] lips; and thine iniquity [±awon] is taken away, and thy sin [chatta°t] purged" Isa 6:7.
(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers.)

In addition there are various Hebrew words for each of those terms. Seeing them as somewhat interchangeable, or as synonyms is sensible. For example, taking iniquity again as the example:
INIQUITY

Other words frequently translated "iniquity" are: °awen , literally, "worthlessness," "vanity," hence, "naughtiness," "mischief" (47 times in the King James Version, especially in the phrase "workers of iniquity," Job 4:8; Ps 5:5; 6:8; Prov 10:29, etc.);
±awel and ±awlah , literally, "perverseness" (Deut 32:4; Job 6:29 the King James Version, etc.).

In the New Testament "iniquity" stands for anomia = properly, "the condition of one without law," "lawlessness" (so translated in 1 John 3:4, elsewhere "iniquity," e.g. Matt 7:23), a word which frequently stood for ±awon in the Septuagint; and adikia
, literally, "unrighteousness" (e.g. Luke 13:27).
(from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Electronic Database Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)

John
NZ

 

[InSpiritInTruth]

Also the mystery of iniquity and insight into the man of sin Paul spoke of is shown here.


Romans 5:12-21

King James Version (KJV)

12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Man was created perfect in the day God created Man (Adam). That was until iniquity (sin) was found in man.

And so this sin nature was passed upon all men, that is the firstborn nature of man, (earthly, flesh) and that is the Man of sin Paul was refering to.

And that is also the mystery of iniquity Paul spoke of, which also God would eventually remove.

 

[Fireinfolding]

Isaiah 6:7 also, shows the same twofold also (below) figured I would post since it come up and I recalled this thread.

Even the tongue is referred to as a world of inquity (in itself) but was looking at these to see if there was a connection

James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

Isaiah 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

Isaiah 6:6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:

Isaiah 6:7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.


That last one was the one I was referring to

 

[InSpiritInTruth]

Shall not that Wicked be consumed?

2 Thessalonians 2:8
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Check out consume, iniquity and sin which also are pertain to the first nature in man (man of sin) who also is flesh. (flesh strives against God's Spirit)

Just as the Lord said in the days of Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me....

Shall not their flesh be consumed, shall they not also melt away?

 

[Fireinfolding]

Speaks of their tongues consuming away in their mouths, but I sure dont want to go there (here)

 

[InSpiritInTruth]

Speaks of their tongues consuming away in their mouths, but I sure dont want to go there (here)

I just thought you might search out all those key words I high lighted and maybe see a connection. There's a bunch of em.

Exodus 15:15
Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.

 

[Fireinfolding]

definately, will do

 

[motherprayer]

Good responses! This is an interesting topic, I think!

 

[InSpiritInTruth]

Good responses! This is an interesting topic, I think!

Yes it is, but I tend to take things in all sorts of different directions, so I'm sorry if I got off topic on the thread.

 

[minimag]

This is from "Vines Complete Expository Dictionary."

Iniquity- It's usual rendering in the New Testament is "unrighteousness"

Sin- Disobedience to divine law, Missing the mark, in KJV, trespass

There is often more than one definition for many words when using Greek.

Hope this helps. God bless.

 

[motherprayer]

Yes it is, but I tend to take things in all sorts of different directions, so I'm sorry if I got off topic on the thread.

Haha That actually never came up in my mind

 

[Fireinfolding]

Then we are back to this again

1John 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.

Even as....

1John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

So not to work unrighteousness (which is sin) and sin is also a transgression of the law etc.

Seems to consistently show the are the same thing, awake to righteousness and sin not, and depart from iniquity, yeild not your members unto iniquity unto iniquity or to obey sin etc.

 

[motherprayer]

It does seem to be spoken of in "almost" equal terms quite often. I am going to give an answer that was given by a church member, and I'd like your feedback:

Sin is "anything you do that is against the Will/Word of God.
Iniquity is a state of the heart that is against the Will/Word of God.
One thing she said I thought was really interesting:
"Iniquity can be described as that little piece of your heart that wants to agree with your sin, that wants to make you believe that God is okay with something you do wrong."
Thoughts?

 

[Fireinfolding]

Well, I probrobly should say that I pretty much try to stay away from putting things into my own words because I could corrupt His in doing that. Not that I dont, I just dont have much trust in my own rewording things (even as I might reason with them at times).

I will agree its a good thing to depart from sin rather then justify it. I have been guilty of that, clinging in the continuance of what I know better not to. Which also could be determined as my disobedience to Him, you only rob yourself of a more fruitful knowledge of Him when you do too.

Even when you know the good you are to do and do not do it that is sin too Its not always in the negative (doing) but also in the positve (doing) as well.

 

[motherprayer]

Well, I probrobly should say that I pretty much try to stay away from putting things into my own words because I could corrupt His in doing that. Not that I dont, I just dont have much trust in my own rewording things (even as I might reason with them at times).

This, my friend, was one of the most accurate statements I have ever read regarding doctrine. You are absolutely right.

I do love a good Godly discussion