6:17
All this talk of being slaves to sin is hypothetical in the sense that Paul is just trying to show how ridiculous the notion of presenting continuing to sin as a desirable option is. In the gospel we have been set free from slavery to sin. We used to be slaves to sin, but because of what Christ has done that is no longer the case. Now see what he says next, “you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching ..” Believing the gospel, believing in Jesus, involves obedience, it involves a change of heart, it involves committing ourselves to a “pattern of teaching”. Cheap grace teaching is not gospel teaching.
6:18
So we used to be slaves to sin, we are now slaves to righteousness. In the next verse Paul makes clear that he is just using this terminology to illustrate a point. The new paragraph in the NIV is unfortunate. What he is saying is that while our lives used to be dominated by sin, so now they are to be dominated by righteousness. The analogy of a slave is useful in describing the power that sin had over us. A slave will obey its master, often the master will mistreat the slave. The sinner will obey sin, but he will rarely be happy doing it, often getting beaten up by the sin.
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