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Terms for Sin
What is the difference between sins, iniquities, and transgressions?
The three terms are synonymous. They all refer to a failure to do God’s will, each viewing it in a slightly different way.
Sin is by far the most common of the trio, occurring over 200 times in the New Testament. It is a shooting term; it means to miss the mark. God’s will for us is revealed in the Bible. That is our target. When we do what He prohibits or fail to do what He requires, we become stray arrows. “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Iniquity is used frequently in the Old Testament, more sparingly in the New Testament. It translates two separate Greek words. The first, anomia, is a legal term that means lawlessness. It can refer either to absence of law or violation of law. The Bible uses it mostly in the latter sense. God’s revealed will is our law. When we ignore it or violate it, we are lawless. Interestingly, this is the term Jesus used to describe those who claim they do many wonderful things in His name, but who in fact do not do the Father’s will (Matthew 7:21-23). To assume or presume what God’s will is and follow that is lawlessness.
The second word sometimes rendered “iniquity” is adikia, a more general term, though it, too, is often used in legal contexts. In verb form it means to hurt or harm, to do wrong. It refers to what is not fair or right, often rendered “unrighteousness.” “All unrighteousness is sin . . .” (1 John 5:17).
The term rendered “transgression,” parabasis, literally means a going aside, then, a going beyond or overstepping. A similar term, paraptoma, means a false step, a slip or fall. It is usually rendered “trespass.” We could call these walking terms. The way God would have us live is laid out like a path. “Make me walk in the path of Your commandments . . .” (Psalm 119:35). We can fall down (Galatians 6:1) or turn aside to another route (Matthew 15:3).
Still other words are used to give us additional views of sin: disobedience might suggest a family picture; debts, a financial picture; stumbling-block is from a hunting term for a trap. But any way you look at sin, it is the same: a failure to do God’s will in our lives which, apart from forgiveness through Jesus Christ, results in eternal condemnation.
