Ministers of a New Covenant

1Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or do we need, as some do, letters of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? 2You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3you are well known to be a letter of Christ, written by us as his ministers, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

4Now, confidence such as this we have, through the Christ, toward God; 5not that we are able, of ourselves, to devise any thing, as from ourselves; but our ability is from God, 6who has made us able ministers of the new covenant, not of letter, but of spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit makes alive.

The Glory of the New Covenant

7For if the ministering of death, by means of a covenant that was written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the sons of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses, on account of the glory of his face, which glory was to come to an end: 8how shall not the ministering of the spirit be more glorious? 9For if the ministering of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministering of righteousness surpass in glory. 10For that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that surpasses. 11For if that which was to come to an end was glorious, much more that which is to remain is glorious.

12Since then we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, 13and do not as Moses did, who put a vail over his face, so that the sons of Israel could not steadily look to the end of that which was to come to an end. 14But their minds were blinded: for till this day, in the reading of the old covenant, the same vail remains not taken away, which vail is removed in Christ. 15But to this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart: 16but whenever their heart shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18And we all, with unvailed face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.