You Are Our Letter
Rivals have arrived carrying letters of recommendation. Paul answers that the Corinthians themselves are his letter, written by our living Father's Spirit on human hearts. He sets the covenant carved on stone, glorious but fading, against the one that endures, where the veil lifts and there is freedom.
3 1Are we starting to recommend ourselves again? Or do we, like some, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3You show yourselves to be a letter from Christ, delivered by us—written not with ink but with the Spirit of our living Father, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.
4Such is the confidence we have through Christ toward our Father. 5Not that we're competent in ourselves to claim anything as our own, but our competence is from our Father. 6He made us competent to serve a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
The New Covenant Shines Brighter
7If the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory—a glory that was fading, 8will not the ministry of the Spirit come with even greater glory? 9For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, how much more does the ministry of righteousness overflow with glory! 10What was glorious has no glory now, outshined by surpassing glory. 11For if what was fading came with glory, how much greater is the glory of what endures!
12Since we have such a hope, we act with great boldness. 13We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the Israelites couldn't stare at the end of what was fading. 14But their minds were hardened. To this day, the same veil remains when the old covenant is read—unlifted, since only in Christ is it removed. 15Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. 16But whenever anyone turns to our Lord Jesus, the veil is taken away. 17Our Lord Jesus is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of our Lord Jesus is, there is freedom. a a v17 Paul makes a striking identity claim here: the Lord whom Israel turns to and the Spirit who brings freedom are one God — never two competing powers, but the one Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at work to set the heart free. 18We all, faces unveiled, gazing at the glory of our Lord Jesus, are transformed into that same image, from glory to glory, as from our Lord Jesus, the Spirit.
