Are people sinners because they break the law or do they break the law because they are sinners?
People break the law because they are sinners, not the reverse. Humanity inherited a sin nature from Adam, so the inward desire to disobey precedes and produces actual transgressions. Breaking the law then brings guilt, but it is not the root cause of being a sinner.
Les explains that this is contrary to what most religions teach and what nine out of ten church members think. Many assume we are sinners because we constantly break the law, but that is not the problem. The problem is something within us that wants to break the law; when we do, we are guilty. The root goes back to Adam. Adam was created perfect, without sin or sinful thought, pure as Christ Himself was in His earthly advent. But when he disobeyed in the garden and ate the forbidden fruit, he immediately became a sin-natured individual, constantly thinking contrary to God's laws. Every human being has inherited that ever since. So we are not sinners because we break the law; we break the law because we are sinners, and we are sinners because we are sons of Adam.