The Apostle Paul is urging the Christians in Rome to choose to live holy lives. Sin causes shame. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden fruit, they were guilt-ridden. They realized that they were naked. Sewed fig leaves to cover their shame yet it did not soothe their conscience. This was God’s warning to them before they fell into sin – Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.