You speak half way correctly, "We need to be redeemed from the condemnation brought upon us by sin. ."
Romans 5:12 gave you the mechanics the same as did James, but you fail to add the two together.
Romans 5:12 tells us sin entered into the world (not the body of man but into the world) and death came through sin. And why? Because all then had sinned.
Now, you know that but you turn it into something mysterious, like a passing by genetics. But sin entering into the world meant that the world's knowledge missed the mark of the perfection of God's knowledge.
What choice then was there for man? Man is only as good as his knowledge and the wisdom that knowledge is able to impart to him.
Now read James again and put two and two together.
There is no need for you to be adding all these extra-Biblical thoughts and by doing so you are only succeeding to empower your own wisdom to mislead you.
I should have added in connection with this, when we read the words of James (James 1:13-18) we should keep it close in mind something Peter told us about why we are drawn out and enticed by such lusts:
1 Peter 1:14 "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to
the former lusts in your ignorance:" We are what we learn and practice. In our ignorance we saw things as good which were in reality bad.
Almost everyone should be able to relate to that, for I dare say we all know people who we see clearly love to do bad but do not believe it is bad. Conversely, there are people who love to do good, but due to ignorance end up doing evil. Matthew 7:19-23
Many of us see people who work very hard at preaching God's Word to others and who are very true to staying as close to their church as possible. And yet we can see that many of these seem to be caught up in the idea that their good works are what will save them.
Well, perhaps those works could save them if they really were good works. That is the key. In our short-sightedness by the ignorance in us, we often lack the ability to see clearly what we are working. Paul believed he was faithfully serving God when he was busy putting Christians to death. And so when we are told that it is not our works which save us we ought to think of Paul, for he was once himself just as those he described here, as follows:
Romans 10:2-3 "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
Let me give you a bit of background about those verses and the thoughts which are expressed in the next couple of verses after them:
The Israelite peoples were basically clamoring that it was impossible to please God, claiming they had no real way to know what he desired of them. (An any old excuse will do, kind of a situation.)
Deuteronomy 29:26-29 provides important background information for what God spoke to Israel through his prophet to tell them, at Deuteronomy 30:1-20. And Paul's words at Romans 10:4-10 are drawn from his knowledge of Deuteronomy chapter 30.
The point is that Jesus is to us just as that written word was in the hand of men under that Old Law Covenant. But even better because Jesus was not just a book which laid there awaiting our interpretation of it before we could apply it. Jesus was the living, breathing, walking demonstration of that Word, leaving us with no excuse to fail to understand that Word. Indeed, if we failed to grasp that Word now that God sent his righteousness into our lives to model it to us, then we truly do merely love darkness rather than light. (Added: Compare the thoughts of Jesus, as follows: John 10:37 "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not." ; John 14:11 "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake." The point being that Jesus was enduring death for us in order to become to us the living, breathing, Word of God to us, the model of the perfect image we are all supposed to aspire to.)
These things are tied harmoniously together by the one common thread, and that is that it is the Word, (the knowledge) of God which saves us. That is why:
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
And that is supported by the entire scripture: Colossians 3:10 "And have put on the new man, which is
renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.."
