2 Corinthians 3

A letter written by Christ

1Are we starting to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3It is plain that you are a letter from Christ, delivered 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 we have through the Christ before God. 5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to reckon anything as coming from us; our sufficiency comes from God, 6who has made us fit to be servants of a new covenant — not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The glory that remains

7If the ministry that brought death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the people of Israel could not gaze at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, 8how much greater the glory of the ministry of the Spirit! 9If the ministry that brings condemnation had glory, far more does the ministry that brings righteousness overflow with glory. 10Indeed, what once was glorious has no glory now, measured against a glory that surpasses it. 11For if what was fading came through glory, how much greater the glory of what remains. 12Since we have such a hope, we speak with complete boldness. 13We are not like Moses, who used to lay a veil over his face so that the people of Israel would not gaze at the end of what was fading. 14But their minds were dulled. To this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read; it is not lifted, because only in Christ is it set aside. 15Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. 16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And all of us, with unveiled faces, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into that same image, from glory to glory — and this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.