What does the Bible say about lawlessness?

It is important to notice the scripture definition of sin. It is 'lawlessness.' 1 John 3:4. Hence the distinction made between 'sin' and 'transgression,' the latter being the infraction of a known command. From Adam to Moses man "had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," yet men had sinned and died. Rom. 5:14. A positive law was given to Adam, which he disobeyed; but from Adam to Moses no definite law was proclaimed, consequently there was no transgression, yet there was sin in the sense of lawlessness, and such sin as called for the deluge. The same distinction is plainly involved in Rom. 4:15; "Where no law is, there is no transgression," yet there may be sin, and it is averred that "as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law." Rom. 2:12.

The rendering of 1 John 3:4, in the A.V., "sin is the transgression of the law," is a mistranslation. The Greek word is ἀνομία, from ἀ, negative, and νόμος, law. This word occurs fourteen times, and in this verse only is it translated in the A.V. 'transgression of the law.' In 2 Cor. 6:14 it is 'unrighteousness,' and in eleven places it is rendered 'iniquity,' signifying any wickedness. Further, ἄνομος, from the same root, is translated 'without law' in 1 Cor. 9:21; 'unlawful' in 2 Peter 2:8; and 'lawless' in 1 Tim. 1:9. These passages clearly indicate that the meaning of 1 John 3:4 is "Every one that practises sin, practises also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness: " that is, doing one's own will, regardless of all restraint of God and man. This applies whether there is a definite law or not, but when there is a definite law sin is also transgression.

In verse 8 the man of sin is referred to as "that Wicked," or more literally, "the lawless [one]." The phrase in verse 7, "the mystery of iniquity," is more literally, "the mystery of lawlessness." Reading it thus, it is more easy to catch the connection. Lawlessness is the very essence of sin. It is the refusal of all controlling authority and restraint, and therefore in deadly opposition to God. The lawlessness, which has long been at work in Christendom in a mysterious or hidden way like a suppressed fire, is going to blaze forth in the lawless one.

It is a great mercy for us to have the reciprocal sentence at the end of the fourth verse, "Sin is lawlessness." It may be said in this case, too, "Lawlessness is sin." It is not, as translated, "Sin is the transgression of the law"; but it is the unbridled will which is not subject to any restraint.

(V. 4). The Apostle then contrasts the lawlessness of the old nature with the righteousness of the new nature that believers possess as born of God. He states that, “Every one that practises sin practises also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness” (N.Tn.). Sin is not simply transgressing a known law, as the defective translation of the Authorised Version suggests. The principle of sin is lawlessness, or doing one's own will apart altogether from any law. As another has said, “Sin is the acting without the curb of law or restraint of another's authority — acting from one's own will” (J.N.D.).

The righteous judge will pronounce the terrible punishment, 'Depart from me'. Those who have made a false profession and pretended a nearness to Christ will be seen to have always been a stranger to him and will receive their punishment: eternal damnation from the presence of God and his glory (2 Thess. 1:9).

Here the Lord calls they who are eternally damned 'ye that work iniquity.' Literally it means 'workers of lawlessness'. For the Jews listening to His words in this passage are disregarding and trespassing the law of Sinai. Such is also the meaning of this word in Hebrews 10:17 where it is mentioned together with 'sin'. In other references lawlessness signifies more than that, for example in 1 John 3:4, where we read: 'Sin is lawlessness' (N.Tr.). Lawlessness in this verse is rebellion against the will of God which is binding upon every man. Lawlessness therefore is the true character of every sin. So 'those who work iniquity' are not the only guilty ones but all who do not want to submit to the will of God even if they have accomplished great things in the name of the Lord during their lives.

When the apostle was with them he had spoken to them about those things. "The mystery of lawlessness (not iniquity) already worketh," he informed the Thessalonians. Sin is lawlessness, and that has been at work from the beginning, man having forsaken God and exalted himself in self will. This works on till it works out into open lawlessness in an out-and-out opposition to God and His Son, culminating in the man of sin, the false Christ, "to give the world its long-sought liberty from divine restraint and bring its vaunted progress to perfection, which under Christianity it has found impossible to attain." The mystery of lawlessness will cease to be a mystery when the lawless one, the man of sin, is manifested. But what keeps back the manifestation of this lawless one? Who or what is it that restrains it? Who is to be taken out of the way before the lawless one can be revealed? Many answers have been given to this question which we do not need to investigate. It is self evident that that which restraineth must be a power superior to man and Satan and of a nature totally different to the man of sin. The restraining one is a power and a person. It is the Holy Spirit of God.

It is, then, revealed that the mystery of lawlessness will have its course. Here it is not a question of counsels, but of an evil done in time. The question here is of this mystery of lawlessness; the apostasy or falling away is not a mystery. There is no need of a revelation to inform us that a man who denies Jesus Christ is not a Christian; he says it. But in this case, it is an evil that has commenced working in the bosom of Christendom, in relation with Christianity; a mystery of which the lawless one will be the full revelation, as the glory of Christ and of the Church will be the full accomplishment of the mystery of Jesus Christ. The words translated, in most versions, "iniquity," and "wicked one," are the same in the original; save that one indicates the thing, and the other the person. It is "lawlessness" and the "lawless one" pre-eminently. This mystery of lawlessness commenced working in the apostle's time: later the veil would be removed. The apostasy would be then: and at length the lawless one would come to his end by the appearing of the coming of Christ. Thus is the dispensation to be brought to an end: this is what we have revealed in this passage. Hence, as we see elsewhere, this will be to introduce the glory and reign of Christ, so that all the earth may be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.

The One who is soon to appear is the One who gave Himself for us upon the cross, and verse 14 very strikingly states one of the great objects He had before Him in giving Himself. It was in order to redeem us from the "iniquity" or "lawlessness" under which we had fallen, so that being thoroughly cleansed we might be a people for His own special possession and filled with zeal for good works. It is not enough that we should be delivered from the practice of evil; we are to be keen in the pursuit of what is good, and that not only in a theoretical but also a practical way. We are not only to do good works but also to do them with zeal. How strikingly will all this "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour." Once a liar, an evil wild beast, a lazy glutton: now, redeemed from lawlessness, purified before God, a zealot for good works. What a transformation!

That freedom from law means lawlessness, the apostle resents, and strenuously refuses. That it means license to sin is an intolerable thought to him. He exclaims most vigorously against it. All who submit to his authoritative statement of what the grace of God means, will join him in denouncing as a false conception the thought that freedom from the principle of law is liberty to indulge in sin — a thought to be put far away.

But during the period of the judges Israel persistently disobeyed the commandments of Jehovah, and broke their own promise to Joshua. They forgot what God had done at the Red Sea and Rephidim, at the Jordan and at Jericho. They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, and served the gods of the surrounding nations. The tabernacle at Shiloh and its worship they despised. The code of righteous laws provided by Moses for an orderly national life acceptable to God they disregarded. Lawlessness prevailed throughout the twelve tribes. In short, the moral condition of Israel, redeemed to be in the eyes of all other nations a model of righteous government, is summed up in the final sentence of this Book: "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).