Are we sinners because we break the law?
No. We are not sinners because we break the law; rather, we break the law because we are sinners by nature. The context substitutes “sin” with “old Adam,” the old sin nature we are born with, and says the law gives knowledge of that old Adam.
Les teaches that throughout Romans one can substitute the word “sin” with “old Adam,” the old sin nature we are born with. He reads the text as saying, “by the law is the knowledge of old Adam.” He then puts up the statement, “We are not sinners because we break the law.” Many assume people are sinners because they have committed adultery, stolen, cheated, or done something, but Les says the opposite: we break the law, the moral ten, because we are already what we are by nature.