There was a discussion recently on a Christian forum I participate in in which one person took 
the view that living the Christian life is a continual struggle with a desire to sin and do wrong 
things. Even before that discussion, I wrote a tract called "TOTALLY CHANGED" which may 
be read in its entirety on http://followersofjesuschrist.org/totallychngd.html.

I am a firm believer in 2 Cor. 5:17. I believe that when you BELIEVE the gospel message, the Holy Spirit will bring "pricked heart" conviction and that will bring REPENTANCE and repentance includes the death of the old sinful nature which we then BURY with Jesus Christ in BAPTISM. thereafter we arise with Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life. We undergo a metamorphosis.

What the Apostle Paus was saying about "...oh wretched man that I am..." must be understood, not as a stand-alone verse, but in the setting and context in which it was written. When we "get saved" as per the Baptist/Assemblies of God "only believe" formula,  weare led to think we are born again or fully metamorphosed at the point of our believing.  We are led to think we can fly and sip nectar, when we still have the nature and need to crawl on branches and chew leaves. But when we truly die to our sin nature in sincere repentance, bury that nature in scriptural baptism as the New Testament so clearly teaches, we arise with Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life with old things passed away and all things having become new.

If you, as a "Christian" are still having a serious struggle with your old sin nature, check out how thoroughly you have slain your old nature through sincere and wholehearted repentance. Living WHOLEHEARTEDLY for Jesus is EASY, but living easy for Jesus is hard! The old nature HAS to die and be buried.  The new has to take its place.  The metamorphosis must be allowed to fully take place. There can be no shortcut. If you try to cut a butterfly or moth out of its cocoon before it has struggled to emerge, its wings never develop so it can fly!

I become very alarmed when I see believers defending a lifestyle of being tortured and tormented with the old sinful nature after they have been "born again" and I cannot help but wonder if they have ever been truly "born again". Their old nature is still showing. It is one thing to have a head knowlege of facts and another to experience first-hand an event or a change.

Some prople will use Romans 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" in an attempt to justify a continuation of the sin nature in the Christian life, but we need to consider that the setting of this verse is verse 23: "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."

While many carnally minded persons (I do not here use the word "believers" nor "Christians", for these words connote the new man in Christ Jesus) use the 5th chapter of Romans as an excuse to sin that Grace may abound because they want to sin and do so continually, much more of the book of Romans is taken up with explaining that while indeed grace does abound and we are saved by the grace and mercy of God, the Apostle Paul is in NO WAY condoning living in
sin! Actually, when taken as a whole, the book of Romans is one of the strongest of books on HOLINESS and the new nature in Christ. Not only is Romans 6:1 very strong, but also 8:2:  "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Paul further explains: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." This is all confirmation of 2 Cor. 5:17. We are transformed, metamorphosed into new creatures in Christ Jesus.

The butterfly may well indeed remember the "old days" of crawling on the twigs and chewing on leaves, even with fond remembrance, but that is no longer his nature. There might indeed be times when his wings are tired and he remembers resting motionless on the twig. He can still do so, but with a whole new grip AND balance, and can instantly lift off and fly away at will.
He is no longer a slave to the "old nature".

No, my dear Brother or Sister, far more New Testament scripture backs a new life in Christ Jesus that is not just a rote obedience to the law which results in a daily struggle with the nature to sin. We are to be "...free from the law of sin and death..."

To argue that we do not slay our sinful man nature in repentance and bury him in baptism with Christ we effectively make "...Christ the minister of sin..." which is totally contrary to all New Covenant or New Testament teaching. "But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found [to be practicing] sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God FORBID.  For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:17-21).

Note also, "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:14).

" Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." (1 John 3:4).

The above are hardly a scratching of the surface of the immense weight of New Testament scripture that teaches that the new life in Jesus Christ is NOT a continual daily struggle with sin, but rather it is a life of victorious overcoming because our nature has been transformed, metamorphosed to a life "in Christ."