Ministers of the New Covenant
1 1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need,
2as some do,
3letters of recommendation to you, or from you?
2
4You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all.
3
And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of
5the living God, not on
6tablets of stone but on
7tablets of
8human hearts.
4
9Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.
5
10Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but
11our sufficiency is from God,
6
who has made us competent to be
12ministers of
13a new covenant, not of
14the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but
15the Spirit gives life.
7
Now if
16the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory
17that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end,
8
will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?
9
For if there was glory in
18the ministry of condemnation,
19the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.
10
Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it.
11
For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
12
Since we have such a hope,
20we are very bold,
13
not like Moses,
21who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.
14
But
22their minds were
23hardened. For to this day,
24when they read
25the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.
15
Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.
16
But when
26one turns to the Lord,
27the veil is removed.
17
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where
28the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
29freedom.
18
And we all, with unveiled face,
30beholding
31the glory of the Lord,
32are being transformed into the same image
33from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.