Do we become sinners by sinning, or do we sin because we are already sinners?
The principle is that people do not become sinners by committing individual sins; rather, they sin because they are already sinners. The condition precedes the action. A person is not made a sinner by what they have done; instead, the existing sinful state produces the sinful deeds. Sinning reveals what one already is.
Les teaches that the order is crucial: we are not sinners because of what we have done. He explains that lost people are lost not because of what they have done but because of unbelief, and he applies the same principle to sin: we sin because we are sinners. The condition is prior; sinful acts flow from an already sinful state.