John,
I was listening to a recent sermon, (I think it was the one entitled “How do you make Jesus feel?”) I don’t remember where it was in the sermon, but you made a point that there was a difference between iniquity and lawlessness – and that lawlessness was the more accurate word for that scripture sentence.
Why?
I studied the references in my concordance, and they both seem to indicate that both words are “transgressions of the law”, although iniquity seems to include the definition of wickedness, but lawlessness just means those who were not subject to the law, such as Gentiles.
I would appreciate your clarification on this, if we must make the distinction between the two words.
Thanks,
Brad
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Hi Brad.
Iniquity is lawlessness because “sin is lawlessness” (1Jn. 3:4). What I was saying is that in the King James translation, and some others, the word that is translated “iniquity” is actually the Greek word for “lawlessness”. We have chosen to translate that word as lawlessness because, in our view, it more precisely reflects the original mindset of the New Testament authors.
It is not that big a deal, really. If someone prefers to use the word iniquity, that is not a problem. It still gets the point across, which is, sin is bad, so don’t do it!
Pastor John