What is the difference between iniquity, sin, and transgression?

There are three words used for sin — "transgression," "sin" and "iniquity." They describe, in a threefold way, the character of the sins of which we have all been guilty. TRANSGRESSION means a going away from a definite command, a rending of oneself apart from the One who gave the command; it is a pulling away of the shoulder from the hand that is laid upon it in loving restraint. How guilty we were of that, alas! How opposed to the will of God we were, how determined to do our own wills and have none of His. Thus we rebelled and thus were we separated from the God who made us and loved us. SIN means missing the mark, for if we are lawless, and the Scriptures say, "Sin is lawlessness," we must miss the mark. If the earth broke away from the law that binds it in its orbit round the sun, how terrible would be the consequences: it would miss the mark, the whole reason for its existence, and destroy itself. And we have sinned and missed the mark. How could we be right and fulfil the purpose of our being when our vision was warped by sin, and all our aspirations were wrong? Hence nothing satisfied us — we had no real peace, we were restless and disappointed. Even what we aimed for we failed to secure, or if we did carry off the prize we got something along with it that turned it to gall and bitterness. INIQUITY means crooked, distorted — a divergence from the straight path. God's path for us was a straight one, a path of righteousness, but we all went astray from it in doing our own wills. What a mess of things we made by our sins: we pulled ourselves away from God, we failed to find any satisfaction, and all our ways were crooked, twisted ways. There was more, and worse: our sins were a challenge to God's supremacy, a rebellion against His throne; they were a dishonour to Him they called for His righteous judgment.

Three words are given in Scripture to define sin; they are brought together in Exodus 34:7, Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 — they are transgression, iniquity and sin. These words are not mere synonyms that could displace one another and nothing be lost, for each has it own terrible meaning. TRANSGRESSION is revolt from, it means a tearing of ones self away. God has declared His will for men, but they prefer their own wills, and in the pursuit of their own wills they tear themselves away from God. INIQUITY means twisted, crooked, perverse. God has laid down a road for the feet of men to tread, and that road is as straight as His everlasting sceptre, but men have made for themselves crooked ways (Isa. 59:8); they are a crooked and perverse generation (Phil. 2:15). SIN means missing the mark. God has set up His mark, the end at which every man should aim. God Himself should be the end and aim of every man's life, but every man has substituted self for God, and set up his own mark to displace God's; and has missed the very mark and purpose of his existence. Along with sin in this threefold character goes GUILE; it permeates the life of every man who has not been honest before God His effort is to appear different from what he knows himself to be, to cover up and hide his sinfulness and even to imagine that be can deceive God Himself as to it. Then the New Testament gives us a striking definition of sin in 1 John 3:4 where we should read, "for sin is lawlessness," and that covers all that sin is; it is not a mere yielding to the sudden and capricious impulses of our nature, but the determination that lies deep in a man's will, though perhaps seldom expressed, to go his own way and be independent of God.

But man in the realm of action has some choice. He may conform fully to God’s laws for him, or he may not. When he diverges from the will of God and exerts his own will it is sin, and “sin is lawlessness.” Sin is missing the mark. Transgression is trespass, or overstepping the mark, breaking a positive command. Iniquity is perverseness, a deeper shade of guilt.

Iniquities, transgressions, and sins were confessed by the high priest, and all of each. The confession was a comprehensive one. By iniquities we understand the fruits of perverseness or crookedness; by transgressions, the overstepping of a line, beyond which a man should not have gone; by sins, the missing or falling short of a mark. Hence these several terms would comprehend all acts of deflection, from the right road, every overstepping of the line, and all comings short, or missing of the mark to which they ought to have attained. All this was confessed on Israel's behalf by Aaron, and put on the living goat reserved for that purpose, which was then sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.

"Transgression" (not sin) is the violation of a known and imposed law. With this the psalmist begins. It is what would first act on the conscience of a Jew, and blessed indeed to know it "forgiven." Where no law is, as the apostle teaches us in Romans 4, there is no transgression. It works wrath. It is the power of sin, forcing out into manifestation what otherwise was latent, that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful. "Sin" is then the evil root which is uncovered to the conscience, that it might be "covered" of God by the blood of atonement, as here. Verse 2 brings forward a great accession of blessing: not only the past evils effaced and gone, but the consequent present state of absolute non-imputation of iniquity by Jehovah. This at once opens the heart, and takes away all "guile" from the spirit. There is no desire to hide the least evil. Because He imputes no iniquity, no guilt, there is no guile in one's spirit, no wish to extenuate or deny. The psalmist then shows how far from this he had been. God had wrought to bring the Israelite to acknowledge his sin, and not to cover his iniquity. When he confessed his transgressions to Jehovah, Jehovah forgave the iniquity of his sins. The psalm itself is a fine comment on the words. How a learned and pious scholar could say that ἀνομία, lawlessness, is never in the N.T. the condition of one living without law, but always the condition or deed of one who acts contrary to law, is marvellous. Romans 2:12 should have corrected the error. It is just the word to describe the lawlessness of a Gentile ignorant of law, no doubt sin, and iniquity, but most precisely "lawlessness."

Etymologically the Hebrew words mean respectively, desertion or revolt, missing a mark or error, perversion, and deceit or fraud. But the usage sanctioned by the Spirit is the true criterion.

There are many different words both in the O.T. and N.T. signifying 'sin,' 'iniquity,' 'wickedness,' etc., with various shades of meaning.

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.

The principal words used for 'sin' in the N.T. are ἁμαρτία, ἁμαρτημα, ἁμαρτάνω, to deviate from a right course: and for 'transgression,' 'transgressor,' παράβασις, παράβάτης, παράβαίνω, to pass by or over a boundary.

Sin is not at all limited to crime, or to glaring evil. What a mischievously and unequivocally false version is that given in the A.V. of 1 John 3:4, where we read that "sin is the transgression of the law!" Millions have thence derived their notion of sin, and have thereby been misled into the great error, on the one hand, of ignoring a vast deal of real sin, and on the other of arguing that all men must be under the law, inasmuch as it is certain that all sinned. But any such reasoning proceeds on a false principle. For the true meaning of the apostle's statement is, that "sin is lawlessness," the far wider and subtler evil of doing one's own will without the check of divinely imposed authority. In the R.V. it is properly rendered, "sin is lawlessness," which is absolutely true, and applies to all mankind whether they did or did not know the law.

All transgression of the law is sin, but all sin is far from being transgression of the law. Hence the Jews are called "transgressors," for they distinctively were under law; whereas scripture speaks of the Gentiles as "sinners," not as "transgressors," which they must have been if all men were alike under law. But this is expressively disproved by Rom. 2:12, where Gentiles are distinguished from Jews on that very ground: "for as many as have sinned without law shall perish without law; and as many as have sinned under law shall be judged by law … in a day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, through Jesus Christ." If Gentiles had not law, they had conscience, which made them feel guilty in dereliction of a natural duty, as is shown in the same context.

Few mistranslations have wrought wider or more profound mischief than that which represents 1 John 3:4. The real sense is, "Every one that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness." Violation of a positive command is not merely ἀνομία but παράβασις νόμου, a wholly different and sometimes contrasted idea, as in Rom. 2:12. Ἀνομία of course includes all infraction of law, but it goes incomparably farther, and takes in every exercise of self-will, where and when there may be no promulgated requirement. This explains the universality of sin since the fall according to Scripture; as the Apostle proves of those who died between Adam and Moses, though they had no known code or command from God. Thus, where there is no law, necessarily no transgression can be; yet it would be erroneous and evil thence to infer that, where there is no law, there is no sin. (Compare Rom. 4:15, and Rom. 5:13-14.) As to all this, the moderns are as dark as the fathers or the schoolmen. The common error as to the law naturally led to an erroneous system, both as to justification and the standard of Christian walk.

INIQUITY. This is often spoken of as unrighteousness in other parts of the inspired writings. We read in 1 John 5:1, “All [or every] unrighteousness is sin”. It may not, however, be said that every sin could be Scripturally designated iniquity or unrighteousness. We will follow this out more in detail later on. Meanwhile, it may be said, Iniquity has to do with perversion in relation to any system or order established by God, and the truth which He has made known. The Hebrew word used is avon, which means perversity.

TRANSGRESSION. This also is sin, but it is to be distinguished from iniquity. We know that death reigned from Adam to Moses, even upon those who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression (Rom. 5:14). It was necessary for a definite command to be broken for the sin to be called transgression, so we read, “Where no law is there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15). Sin may be there in various forms nevertheless. When God’s people, Israel, to whom the law was given discover in a later day this truth concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, that it was because of their transgression He was stricken (Isa. 53:8), as well as for their iniquities and their sins, it will greatly enhance their estimate of His sacrificial work upon the cross, and enrich their notes of thanksgiving and praise.

Let us first consider the way in which he describes his sins. He uses three words — transgressions, iniquity and sin. And these words are not mere synonyms, that can be used interchangeably without any loss of force, each has its own terrible meaning. Transgression is revolt, rebellion. God says "Thou shalt not, " I say, "I will." God says, "Thou shalt, " I say, "I won't." In pity He lays His hand upon my shoulder and says, "Don't": I pull away my shoulder and flout His pity. That is transgression. And this strange conduct had been multiplied in David's history as in ours, for he says, not, my transgression, but "my transgressions."

Iniquity means that which is crooked, perverted, twisted. God had a way for David and for us, as straight as His righteous sceptre, but David and everyone of us preferred a crooked way. "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way." Independence of God, and the way of death rather than confidence in God and the way of life, is the deliberate choice of all the children of Adam, and the prophet, who cried, "Thou art the man" in David's startled ear, turns also the accusing finger at every one of us. Sin, as David used the word, means missing the mark. God had set up His mark for men to aim at, for not a man ever entered this world who was not responsible to glorify God and live to His praise; if God is God, it must be so, for being God, He cannot claim less than that the aim of every intelligent creature, be he angel or man, should be in harmony with His will, David confessed his failure in this; he had missed God's mark; in his blind self-will and self-gratification he had refused to see God's mark and had set up his own in the hope that it would yield him a greater happiness; he missed his own aim and got misery instead of happiness, "his moisture was turned into the drought of summer." And here we all have stood with him. David and we failed to gain even what we aimed at, so that he and we were not only sinners but wretchedly disappointed sinners. Sin is a boomerang that misses the target but most surely returns and smites the soul of the thrower.