Because God has lovingly reached down and shown mercy to man, we now have the ability (through the Holy Spirit) to live a sanctified life.
Until the resurrection of Christ, justification was thought to be earned through strict obedience to the Old Testament Laws and regulations. Jews based their righteousness on their ability to maintain the statutes set forth in scriptures. In the Epistle to the Romans, Paul points the Church to the fact that mankind is not justified by following the law, because there is no one who can keep every law. Man is sinful, and therefore, doomed from the start. The law was intended, not to make us righteous, but to point out to us how unrighteous we truly are. The intent of the law is to reveal our need for God. We are hopeless without His loving mercy. .
Beginning in Chapter 6, Verse 15, Paul poses a key question to the believers in Rome; "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace"? Immediately he attacks the issue plaguing many followers: Since we are justified through Christ, is sin an issue any more? Can't we continue sinning here and there, and not be affected by it? Paul answers with an astounding, "By no means!" Paul intends to combat the tendency of falling victim to the desires of the flesh. Just because we are forgiven by God, and have been bathed in His eternal mercy, we do not have the right to take sin lightly. Sin, as we will further investigate, is destructive, and completely at odds with God.
Through a vivid usage of imagery in verse 16, Paul masterfully compares the controlling nature of sin to the bondage experienced in slavery. This word picture would immediately strike a chord among the members of the Church at Rome, who were very familiar with the intricacies and economy of slavery. Rome, the cultural and commercial capital of the Roman Empire, boasted a population of more that one million citizens, many of whom were slaves .
