Ministers of a New Covenant

1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? 2You are our letter, having been written in our hearts, known and read by all men, 3being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, ministered to by us, having been written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of hearts of flesh.

4And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. 5Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7But if the ministry of death, in letters having been engraved on stones, came [†]with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was being brought to an end, 8how will the ministry of the Spirit not be even more in glory? 9For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10For indeed what had been glorious, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11For if that which was being brought to an end was [†]with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

12Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness, 13and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the consequence of what was being brought to an end. 14But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil [†]remains unlifted, because it is brought to an end in Christ. 15But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, 16but WHENEVER a person TURNS TO THE [†]LORD, THE VEIL IS TAKEN AWAY. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.