Christ’s Epistle
DO we begin again to commend ourselves? or do we have need of (as some others), letters of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
3 Because you are revealed to be the letter of Christ, ministered by us; written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart.
The Spirit, Not the Letter
4 ¶ And trust such as this, we have through Christ towards God:
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to think anything as coming from ourselves; rather, our sufficiency is in God;
6 Who has also made us sufficient ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter puts to death, but the spirit gives life.
Glory of the New Covenant
7 ¶ Now if the ministry of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious: so that, the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, because of the glory of his countenance, which faded away:
8 How shall not the ministry of the spirit be even more glorious?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation be glory; then, much more does the ministry of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For even that which had glory, has no glory in this respect: on account of the glory that surpasses it.
11 For if that which faded away was glorious: then, much more that which remains is glorious.
12 ¶ Seeing then that we have such a hope, we use great boldness.
13 And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look into the end, of that which is abolished.
14 But their minds were blinded; for until today, remains the same veil: which is not unveiled in the reading of the old testament. That veil, is done away with in Christ.
15 But even until today, when Moses is read: the veil is on their heart.
16 Now, if at anytime they turn back to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
17 ¶ Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 And we all with unveiled face, reflect as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory as from the Spirit of the Lord.