All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath. — Ephesians 2:3

"by nature children of wrath". That's what we were — not by bad choices but by nature. Yet by grace i am what i am. Paul called himself the foremost sinner and received mercy. What we were by nature is not what we are in Christ.