Know Your Sins, Transgressions, & Iniquities

Through the grace of YouTube, I now know the difference between sin, transgression, & iniquity.  Do you?

Sin is when we try to do the right thing, in alignment with God's Word, but fail to meet the mark.  The Hebrew and Greek terms are related to spear throwing and archery, where the target is hit, but not the bulleye (ie. we missed the centre of the target).  The intent was good, but we unintentionally slipped and fell during the implementation.  Sin is accidental.  Sin in never a premeditated desire to do evil.

Transgression (also known as "trespass", usually regarded as a synonym) is when there is an evil intent.  We know it's against God's Law, but we decide to do evil anyways.  Transgression can also occur in the heart and mind alone, as the opportunity to carry out our intended evil has not yet arisen.

Iniquity has a few subtle definitions. Iniquity is pre-meditation evil, done of purpose, on an ongoing, chronic, habitual basis.  Iniquity can also mean the bending or colouring of a Law so as to take a perverse interpretation, contrary to the obvious, true meaning.  The Devil delights in this technique, and encourages everybody to follow his evil example.  The third meaning is to receive or hold the resulting guilt or punishment for your sins and transgressions (ie. to wallow in your iniquity).  The fourth meaning is someone who acts as if they are a law unto themselves, who do not recognize nor obey God's Laws, who are lawless, or have relative, self-serving morality of their own creation (ie. everything is relative, there are no absolutes, right and wrong depend upon the circumstances).  This worker of iniquity creates their own god in their mind, and give their god a perverted, immoral code that accepts all the evil they wish to commit as good (even though it is evil as defined by God).

Now you know.

Remember, whether its sin, transgression, trespass, or iniquity, true Christian do not habitually live in these evil failings.

If someone is doing evil "X" (eg. lie, steal, cheat, adultery, etc.), then does "X" again, and again, and again, they are living in X as a matter of habit.  X is a chronic, bad habit.  They do not regret X.  They do not repent their failings at doing X.  They do not seek forgiveness for doing X.  This X is iniquity.  This person does not know Christ, is not Born Again, and is subject to gnashing of teeth or weeping as Christ turns them away from them at Judgement Day, as they slowly sink into the Lake of Fire.

However, if someone does "X", realizes their evil, repents, seeks forgiveness, and takes concrete steps to learn from their mistake, and earnestly tries to avoid X thereafter, this is forgivable by God.  They may stumble and fall into the evil "Y" soon after, but they will take the same approach to Y, and eventually set "Y" forever into their past.  In this way, each day they move closer to Christ, and become more and more Christ-like.  This is a true Christian, and Jesus Christ will give them a pure white Heavenly garments and a crown of gold, and allow them to enjoy everlasting life, and avoid the Lake of Fire and the perpetual suffering of sinners.

In Matthew 18:21-22, Jesus says we should forgive our sinning brothers and sisters 70 time 7 fold, (ie. 7*70= 490 times) for their truly repented sin.  If that is what we should do for our fellow humans, we can likely expect that same or greater amount of forgiveness of our sins by Jesus Christ.  Jesus is a far better forgiver than you are a sinner.  Note that this forgiveness for accidental, unplanned sin.  This is not the forgiveness of ongoing, chronic iniquity.  Iniquity is deadly.  There is only limited time and chances for the forgiveness of iniquity.

Whenever we do unrepentant sin or iniquity, we put a drop of poison into our internal well of living water.  The first drop won't kill you.  However, as you do more & more iniquity, you keep adding additional drops of poison to the well.  Soon, the well of living water will turn your stomach when you drink it.  1 Corith. 11:27-30 tells us that eventually, you will be weakened more and more, to the point of being incapacitated, or death by sin.

As your iniquity adds more and more poison to your internal well of living water, the Holy Spirit inside you is also affected.  Your body & soul becomes more and more inhospitable for the indwelling Holy Spirit.  The amount and activity of the Holy Spirit inside you shrinks more and more with each drop of evil poison added to the well.  Eventually, the Holy Spirit can no longer stand living inside you, so it packs its bags, and leaves you permanently, never to come back.  At that point, you no longer have a conscience, and God has permanently abandoned you to your reprobate mind, and a guaranteed spot in Hell, to burn and be tormented forever & ever.  See Romans 1:18-32

Which ending do you choose for yourself?


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*** Original 2018-8-22, Update #1   2019-11-5 ***