2 Corinthians 3
3
Servants of the New Agreement
1Are we starting to brag about ourselves again? Do we need letters of introduction to you or from you, like some other people? 2You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3You show that you are a letter from Christ sent through us. This letter is not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. It is not written on stone tablets but on human hearts.
4We can say this, because through Christ we feel certain before God. 5We are not saying that we can do this work ourselves. It is God who makes us able to do all that we do. 6He made us able to be servants of a new agreement from himself to his people. This new agreement is not a written law, but it is of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.
7The law that brought death was written in words on stone. It came with God’s glory, which made Moses’ face so bright that the Israelites could not continue to look at it. But that glory later disappeared. 8So surely the new way that brings the Spirit has even more glory. 9If the law that judged people guilty of sin had glory, surely the new way that makes people right with God has much greater glory. 10That old law had glory, but it really loses its glory when it is compared to the much greater glory of this new way. 11If that law which disappeared came with glory, then this new way which continues forever has much greater glory.
12We have this hope, so we are very bold. 13We are not like Moses, who put a covering over his face so the Israelites would not see it. The glory was disappearing, and Moses did not want them to see it end. 14But their minds were closed, and even today that same covering hides the meaning when they read the old agreement. That covering is taken away only through Christ. 15Even today, when they read the law of Moses, there is a covering over their minds. 16But when a person changes and follows the Lord, that covering is taken away. 17The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18Our faces, then, are not covered. We all show the Lord’s glory, and we are being changed to be like him. This change in us brings ever greater glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
2 Corinthians 3
3
1Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need (as some do) epistles of commendation to you, or from you?
2You are our epistle, written in our hearts, which is known and read by all men:
3Being manifested, that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.
4And such confidence we have, through Christ, towards God.
5Not that we are sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God.
6Who also hath made us fit ministers of the new testament, not in the letter, but in the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth.
7Now if the ministration of death, engraven with letters upon stones, was glorious; so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which is made void:
8How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather in glory?
9For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more the ministration of justice aboundeth in glory.
10For even that which was glorious in this part was not glorified, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
11For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is in glory.
12Having therefore such hope, we use much confidence:
13And not as Moses put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel might not steadfastly look on the face of that which is made void.
14But their senses were made dull. For, until this present day, the selfsame veil, in the reading of the old testament, remaineth not taken away (because in Christ it is made void).
15But even until this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.
16But when they shall be converted to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
17Now the Lord is a Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.