Slavery to Sin Part 2

Slavery to Sin, to me, sounds as though there are conditions brought on us by sin which we are unable to reverse. In view of my recent readings about the resurrection, physical death is among them. Christ releases me from that slavery because i will be raised from the dead. But there has to be more components to this enslavement, because i can enjoy partial redemption from sin in the here and now. What exactly am i being freed from? Like i said before, growing up it seemed like slavery to sin was packaged as little more than it being really hard to stop sinning--that it's just such a habit to sin that it's very difficult to quit. That may still be true, but i have to repeat, it seems a very weak explanation of "slavery to sin."

Christ is supposed to be my Savior--the One who redeems me from sin. But let's be honest, even a Buddhist can bring his anger under control; even a Wiccan can make the hard choices to overturn her alcoholism; even an atheist can practice the self-denial necessary to stop cheating on his wife. So if slavery to sin is just the tremendous difficulty involved in giving it up, then how is Christ my redeemer from sin when it seems apparent i could've accomplished much of this "on my own"?

It is this point that makes the "difficult-habit-to-break" explanation of slavery to sin very, very unsatisfying to me. So what is it? Exactly what is it that Christ frees me from? In exactly what senses does sin "own" me such that i need Christ to buy me back? i would really love to consider your thoughts.