Ministers of a New Covenant
1 Are we starting to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some [false teachers], letters of recommendation to you or from you? [No!]
2 You are our letter [of recommendation], written in our hearts, recognized and read by everyone.
3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 Such is the confidenceandsteadfast relianceandabsolute trust that we have through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are sufficiently qualified in ourselves to claim anything ascomingfrom us, but our sufficiencyandqualifications come from God.
6 He has qualified us [making us sufficient] as ministers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not of the letter [of a written code] but of the Spirit; for the letter [of the Law] kills [by revealing sin and demanding obedience], but the Spirit gives life.
7 Now if the ministry of death, engraved in letters on stones [the covenant of the Law which led to death because of sin], came with such gloryandsplendor that the Israelites were not able to look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, [a brilliance] that was fading,
8 how will the ministry of the Spirit [the new covenant which allows us to be Spirit-filled] fail to be even more gloriousandsplendid?
9 For if the ministry that brings condemnation [the old covenant, the Law] has glory, how much more does glory overflow in the ministry that brings righteousness [the new covenant which declares believers free of guilt and sets them apart for God’s special purpose]!
10 Indeed, what had glory [the Law], in this case no longer has glory because of the glory that surpasses it [the gospel].
11 For if that [Law] which fades awaycamewith glory,howmuch moremustthat [gospel] which remainsandis permanent abide in gloryandsplendor!
12 Since we have such a [glorious] hopeandconfident expectation, we speak with great courage,
13 and we are not like Moses,whoused to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites would not gaze at the end of the glory which was fading away.
14 But [in fact] their minds were hardened [for they had lost the ability to understand]; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed [only] in Christ.
15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil [of blindness] lies over their heart;
16 but whenever a person turns [in repentance and faith] to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,thereis liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom].
18 And we all, with unveiled face,continuallyseeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, areprogressivelybeing transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.