< 2 Corinthians 3 >
1 Must we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some, letters of recommendation to you, or letters of recommendation from you?
2 You are out letter, written on our hearts, known and read of all men.
3 For you are plainly declared Christ's letter, ministered by us, written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart.
4 Now we have such confidence through Christ, toward God;
5 not that we are competent by ourselves to reckon anything as from ourselves: but our competency is from God,
6 who has made us competent ministers of a new institution; not of letter, but of spirit: for the letter kills; but the spirit makes alive.
7 For if the ministration of death in letters engraved on stone was with glory, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face, which was to be abolished;
8 how much rather shall not the ministration of the Spirit be with glory?
9 For if the ministration of condemnation was glorious, much more does the ministration of justification abound in glory.
10 For, indeed, that which was glorified, was not glorified, in this respect, by reason of the transcendent glory.
11 For if that which is abolished was with glory, much more that which continues, is with glory.
12 Having, therefore, such confidence, we use great plainness of speech;
13 and not as Moses, who put a vail upon his face, that the children of Israel might not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished.
14 Indeed, their minds were blinded: for, till this day, the same vail remains in the reading of the Old Institution; it not being discovered that it is abolished in Christ.
15 Moreover, till this day, when Moses is read, the vail lies upon their heart.
16 But when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken from around it.
17 Now, the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And we all, with unvailed face, beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord; are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Lord, the Spirit.
