THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INIQUITIES & TRANSGRESSIONS

Unless we understand the fullness of the sacrifice of Calvary then we will always be subject to our lower nature, because the Lord has given us faculties of expression so that we can outwardly portray the inner quality of his nature.

In his 1^st letter to the Corinthians Paul said that they were acting just like people in the world around them, unspiritual.

Then in his 2^nd letter he says that they should be reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord.

And in his prayer in the letter to the Ephesians he was praying that they would get a revelation of the power that Jesus had exercised for them through his resurrection.

In the OT man was dualistic by nature, he had an inner man and an outer man, but the gospel of the Old Covenant couldn’t touch the inner spirit of man. The blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of the ashes of the heifer could only cleanse the flesh (Heb 9:13) it could not touch the inner spirit of man. So to bless people God sent an expression of his character and nature in the form of 10 Commandments and whenever somebody conformed to that law they were considered to be righteous, the only problem was that nobody could keep it. In this new covenant God has given us a new heart and in that heart he has placed the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus which is his nature within us. Yet here today we have people still living under that old law like Paul describes it in Rom 7, still having trouble with the flesh and being a wretched position as a Christian delighting after the law of God in the inner man but the outer man still having conflict with habits and things being a wretched man still trying to be free by the works of the law. The LSD works in the flesh of man and the only way you can be free from it is if you die. Paul describes it like a husband & wife relationship and if one partner dies then you are no longer tied, you are free. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus ha set us free from the law of sin & death. Well are you dead or alive? You should be both, dead to sin and alive to God.

So here we are with the new life of Christ within us and we are carrying around a dead body that wants to keep on doing all the things it is used to doing. But it is only if we live according to the spirit that we are able to put to death the misdeeds of the body. Because of death in us, we all fall short of the glory of God, and we don’t have the strength to hit the target or live up to the life that Jesus wants me to live. In Isaiah 53 we are told ‘he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities’, what is the difference?

Iniquity is a part of your character that is created by sin. It is not sin itself, but is the character of sin.

 (Lev 26: 38-45) = There are things in your background that you have to deal with. Iniquities become a part of your DNA, unless dealt with, then you will keep committing the same sins over and over again.

(Ex 34: 6-7) = Fathers sin passed on, you don’t inherit their sin, you inherit their iniquity.

Because of Adam’s sin, we inherited death. Death was passed on, not sin. (Rom 5:12)

Because of death we are born strength less, we don’t have the power not to sin.

 (Jer 14:20) = ‘We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, the iniquity of our ancestors, for we have sinned against you.’ Not only are they taking accountability for their own sins but for the weaknesses passed on through their ancestors. Patterns coming down through the family line.

(Ps 51: 5) = See, I was conceived in guilt, in sin my mother conceived me; David was the 9^th generation descended from Perez who was the illegitimate child from Judah and his daughter in law Tamar. (Gen 38) Incest coming down through the family line. David wasn’t considered as one of Jesse’s sons when Samuel came to anoint the next king of Israel. There is no record of who the mother of David was. David’s son Amnon had incest with his half sister Tamar (2 Sam 13).

(James 1:14-15) = ‘But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death’.  Every sin starts with curiosity or the desire to have something that we are not supposed to have, curiosity killed the cat. Adam was curious about that one fruit that he couldn’t have.

There is the story of Noah and Ham. We are not told what Ham did but we are told that he looked at his father’s nakedness when he got drunk in his tent, he lusted after him and when Noah found out he said cursed be Canaan, not Ham who was his off-spring.

                                               The Sacrifice that sets us Free

 

In the OT there wasn’t any sacrifice great enough to deal with the nature of man. In Isaiah 53 He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. What is the difference between them? Transgressions are cleansed by confession of the blood of Jesus but iniquities are dealt with differently. Many are bound by habits and are unable to get set free and because of that keep repeating the same sins over and over.

 

Matt 5, adultery is the sin caused by the iniquity of lust; murder is the sin caused by the iniquity of anger. You may be battling those things that have been handed down as psychic, mental, physical, emotional weaknesses, trying to get free from them by pleading the blood of Jesus but the blood of Jesus was never meant for dealing with our weaknesses,

 

it is the cross of Jesus that deals with our weaknesses(iniquities).

 

He was wounded for our transgressions and the blood of Jesus gives us remission from our sins. He was bruised for our iniquities means that his body became a shattered vessel like the alabaster jar that had to be broken so that the myrrh could be released. If you only see Jesus on the cross as a spotless lamb you will never ever be free from iniquity. The spotless lamb shed his blood so that we could have remission for our trespasses, sins and transgressions. But that was not the sacrifice that set people free from their iniquities. There wasn’t any sacrifice great enough in the OT that was able to set people free. David said in Ps 65:3 ‘my iniquities have overpowered me’. Paul deals with this in Romans 8:3 and Jesus explained it to Nicodemus in John 3:14, he did not say a lamb, but a serpent, it’s an anti-type.

The OT sacrifice that depicts this is in Lev 16, the scapegoat offering. Lots were cast and one lot became the holy offering and the blood of that holy offering was taken and sprinkled for the remission of sins which portrays Jesus shedding his holy blood for the remission of our sins, then the High Priest took the scapegoat and laid his hands on the goats head all the iniquities of the people were placed upon that little goat and taken outside the camp into a prepared place in the wilderness and left to die, and that is Christ identifying himself as the serpent in the wilderness and becoming sin and iniquities for us and being taken into that place of judgement for us so that we could be set free. Our fallen nature was placed on Jesus so that we could have a re-birth in our spirit and have his nature within. No longer in Adam with the old sinful nature but in Christ born again of incorruptible seed and become new creations in Christ. Most people don’t know what they are, that’s why Paul had to pray for the Ephesians so that they would get a revelation of the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus wasn’t just resurrected from the dead physically, he had to have a spiritual resurrection. He tasted spiritual death, cut off like Adam from the life of God, so that we could have a re-birth in our spirit and be reconciled to the Father. How do we deal with iniquities then? We have to renounce them. If I renounced my son, I would be cutting him off from my inheritance and considering him to be dead. To renounce means to consider one to be dead. How can I consider those things that are active in my life and I consider them to be dead? Because on the cross of Calvary, he who knew no sin became sin for me, he became my old nature and he died and when he died he accounted us to be dead with him. God considers me to be dead. Why doesn’t that automatically work in my life? Because I have to reckon it, it’s an accounting term. Romans 6: 1-11 ‘Reckon yourself indeed dead unto sin’.  It’s not by my struggling that I overcome these things, when I try to resist I become more bound, that’s what Paul was saying in Romans 7. Deliverance does not come that way it comes by faith in Christ.

An example in Judges 6 Gideon was bound by fear hiding in a winepress. Why did they worship idols, because they were afraid? Fear causes one to worship an idol. Because of their fear they were worshipping Baal and were sacrificing babies and animals to idols because of their fear. Gideon was battling fear that he inherited from his father who was an idol worshipper. How did God release him? He was told to take the 2^nd bullock of 7 years and pull down the idols and then take that bullock and make him a sacrifice on a rock. A Bullock is a servant and 4 times in Isaiah Jesus in called my servant, Jesus is the bullock. Why the 2^nd bullock? Because the 1^st bullock Adam had only soul power he had no spiritual power. Adam was a living soul but Jesus became a life giving spirit. You can’t overcome your weaknesses by rationalisation or any other way. The 1^st Adam is powerless against iniquity. Jesus has dealt with sin because he became sin; he has dealt with iniquity because he became iniquity and as I accept his sacrifice on my behalf I then to share in his death and resurrection.

 

In Romans 6, put your weakness where it says sin and because renunciation is a repetitive word keep repeating it until it is no longer a part of you. If it is something coming down through the family line then take accountability and start confessing:- 

I am dead to fear/lust/shame/guilt/anger/adultery/alcohol/drugs. Start a true spiritual warfare and take accountability for things coming down the family line. Example, I renounce the fear that was in my mother and grandmother I renounce it in Jesus name, it is dead to me now, it is no longer a part of me, I place it on the cross of Calvary where it was taken for me and I declare myself to be free from it in Jesus name.