Are we sinners because we sin, or do we sin because we're sinners?
Scripture teaches that people sin because they are sinners, not that they are sinners because they sin. Humanity is sinful by nature as offspring of Adam; no one is made a sinner merely by what they have done. All have sinned and fall short of God's glory.
Les explains that every human being has been a lawbreaker and is a sinner by nature. Keeping the Ten Commandments cannot justify anyone, because by the Law is the knowledge of sin. All, Jew and Gentile, have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He emphasizes that it is not because of anything we have done that we are sinners; we are sinners because of who we are, as sons and offspring of Adam. Therefore, we sin because we are sinners, not sinners because we sin. The remedy is being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
More Questions
Are we sinners because we commit sins, or do we commit sins because we are Adam's sinful offspring?
A person is a sinner by virtue of being Adam's offspring, and then, because he is already a sinner, he commits actual sins.
Who has sinned and come short of the glory of God?
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, not just Gentiles, but Jew and Gentile alike.