Would we have been capable of committing rape and pillage before we were saved?
Yes. The teaching indicates that every person before salvation would have been capable of rape and pillage, because the old Adam has free course when external restraints are removed. Humanity comes from that fallen condition, but where sin abounds, God’s grace is always greater.
Les explains that even the unbeliever can be inhibited by surroundings, circumstances, parental influence, and community. But in a totally strange environment away from home where no one knows them, the old Adam has free course. That is exactly what happens when soldiers of an invading army pillage a community and rape the women, seemingly without bother. Les says every one of us, before we were saved, would have been capable of those same things because that is where the human race is coming from. Paul is showing that the old Adam abounds with sin, but where sin abounds, the grace of God is always greater. Old Adam reigned like a king over us and humanity, but grace can reign like a king as well.