A Delight in Right

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7)
As Paul talks about the struggle within - between the old sinful nature and the new - he packs in a lot of background and imagery.  The first verse takes us all the way back to Genesis 4, and Cain's struggle to do right, as sin was "at the door", looking for a way in.  In the next verse he talks of "delighting in the law of God," words David uses to describe searching the scriptures in order to be able to pursue a life that please God, like a passionate hunter.  He then talks about this as a vicious ward.  Finally, he talks about the "body of death", which was a punishment sometimes given to a vicious killer: the body of the victim would be strapped to the back of the murderer. Not only would there "be no escape from one's crime; the decaying body of the deseased would begin to invade the body of the criminal and they would die a slow, excrutiating death from the ouside in.  Despite these powerful pictures, Paul saw great hope in the struggle against sin: Jesus Christ our Lord!