1Are we starting again to recommend ourselves? Or do we need, like some others, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.
3You show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on human hearts.
4We have this confidence in God through Christ.
5It's not that we are able to do anything on our own; rather, our ability comes from God.
6He has made us capable ministers of a new covenant—one not based on written laws, but on the Spirit. For the written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
7Now if the ministry that brought death, which was carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites couldn't look steadily at Moses' face because of its fading glory,
8how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be?
9For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
10What was glorious before is no longer glorious, because of the glory that is far greater.
11If the old way, which was temporary, came with glory, then the new way, which lasts forever, has much more glory.
12Since we have such a hope, we speak with great confidence.
13We are not like Moses, who covered his face with a veil so that the people of Israel would not see the fading glory come to an end.
14But their minds were closed, and to this very day, when the old covenant is read, the same veil remains only to be removed in Christ.
15Even today, when the writings of Moses are read, a veil covers their minds.
16But whenever someone 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.
18All of us, with uncovered faces, reflect the Lord's glory, and we are being changed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.