Ministers of a New Covenant

1Do we begin again to recommend ourselves? or do we need, as some do, recommendatory epistles to you, or letters of recommendation from you? 2Ye are our epistle, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by all men: 3being manifest that ye are the epistle of Christ, through our ministration, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on tables of the heart of flesh.

4And such confidence have we through Christ towards God: 5not that we can of ourselves reckon upon any thing as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. 6Who hath also fitted us to be ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.

The Glory of the New Covenant

7Now if the ministration of death which was in writing, and engraven on stones, was so glorious that the children of Israel could not look stedfastly on the face of Moses, because of the lustre of his countenance, which was to be taken away: 8shall not the ministration of the Spirit be more glorious? 9For if the ministration of condemnation was so glorious, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory: 10since what was then made glorious was not in comparison glorious, because of the glory that surpasseth it. 11For if that, which was to be taken away, came with glory, much more that which abideth is glorious.

12Having therefore such hope, we use much freedom of speech: 13and do not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face, intimating that the children of Israel could not look to the end of that which was to be abolished; but their minds were blinded: 14for unto this day the same veil remaineth unremoved in the reading of the old testament, which veil is taken away in Christ. 15But to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. 16Though when it turneth unto the Lord, the veil is taken off: 17now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18But we all with unveiled face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, as proceeding from the Spirit of the Lord.