Get the free app for more features and content.
Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

Ministers of the New Covenant

1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; 3and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared 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.

4Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, 6who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, 8how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? 9For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory! 10Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory; 11for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory!

12Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, 13not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. 14But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. 15Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; 16but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Click here to learn more.

Featured Resources

New Testament Letters: Historical Context

New Testament Letters: Historical Context

In the New Testament, there are 21 letters or epistles written by early Chris...

BibleProject

Introduction to 2 Corinthians

Introduction to 2 Corinthians

Dr. Cameron Lee introduces 2 Corinthians as a case study in church conflict a...

Fuller Studio

Piper and Charles on Scriptures They Turn to When Discouraged

Piper and Charles on Scriptures They Turn to Wh...

John Piper and H. B. Charles

The Gospel Coalition

New Testament Letters: Literary Context

New Testament Letters: Literary Context

In the New Testament, there are 21 letters written by early Christian leaders...

BibleProject

New Testament Summary: A Complete Animated Overview

New Testament Summary: A Complete Animated Over...

Watch our overview video on the New Testament. This video breaks down the lit...

BibleProject

Book of 2 Corinthians Summary: A Complete Animated Overview

Book of 2 Corinthians Summary: A Complete Anima...

Watch our overview video on 2 Corinthians, which breaks down the literary des...

BibleProject

Explore 2 Corinthians 3