2 Corinthians 3
3
God's New Agreement
1Are we once again bragging about ourselves? Do we need letters to you or from you to tell others about us? Some people do need letters telling about them. 2But you are our letter, and you are in our#3.2 our: Some manuscripts have “your.” hearts for everyone to read and understand. 3#Ex 24.12; Jr 31.33; Ez 11.19; 36.26. You are like a letter written by Christ and delivered by us. But you are not written with pen and ink or on tablets made of stone. You are written in our hearts by the Spirit of the living God.
4We are sure about all this. Christ makes us sure in the very presence of God. 5We don't have the right to claim that we have done anything on our own. God gives us what it takes to do all we do. 6#Jr 31.31. He makes us worthy to be the servants of his new agreement that comes from the Holy Spirit and not from a written Law. After all, the Law brings death, but the Spirit brings life.
7 #
Ex 34.29. The Law of Moses brought only the promise of death, even though it was carved on stones and given in a wonderful way. Still the Law made Moses' face shine so brightly the people of Israel could not look at it, even though it was a fading glory. 8So won't the agreement the Spirit brings to us be even more wonderful? 9If something that brings the death sentence is glorious, won't something that makes us acceptable to God be even more glorious? 10In fact, the new agreement is so wonderful that the Law is no longer glorious at all. 11The Law was given with a glory that faded away. But the glory of the new agreement is much greater, because it will never fade away.
12This wonderful hope makes us feel like speaking freely. 13#Ex 34.33. We are not like Moses. His face was shining, but he covered it to keep the people of Israel from seeing the brightness fade away. 14The people were stubborn, and something still keeps them from seeing the truth when the Law is read. Only Christ can take away the covering that keeps them from seeing.
15When the Law of Moses is read, they have their minds covered over 16#Ex 34.34. with a covering that is removed only for those who turn to the Lord. 17The Lord and the Spirit are one and the same, and the Lord's Spirit sets us free. 18#4 Macc 9.22. So our faces are not covered. They show the bright glory of the Lord, as the Lord's Spirit makes us more and more like our glorious Lord.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
2 Corinthians 3
3
1Do we begin again to commend ourselves?#3:1 2C 5:12 Or surely we do not need, as some do, iggrot of haskama (letters of approval, commendation) to you or from you?#3:1 Ac 18:27; Ro 16:1
2You are our iggeret, written on our levavot, being known and being read by kol Bnei Adam.#3:2 1C 9:2
3And you show that you are an iggeret from Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, prepared by us, having been written not with ink but with the Ruach Hakodesh of the Elohim Chayim, not on luchot of stone#3:3 Ex 24:12; 31:18; 32:15,16; 34:1; Dt 9:10,11 but on luchot of lev basar.#3:3 Jer 31:33
4Such is the bitachon (confidence) that we have through Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach toward Hashem.
5Not that we are competent from ourselves to claim anything as of ourselves, but our competence is from Hashem,#3:5 2C 2:16
6Who also made us competent as klei kodesh mesharetim (ministers) of a Brit Chadasha#3:6 Jer 31:31 — not b'khol chomer hadin (not by strict letter of the law, legalism), but of the Ruach Hakodesh: for kol chomer hadin (strict letter of the law) kills,#3:6 Dt 27:26; Ro 8:1 but the Ruach Hakodesh gives Chayim —
7Now if the Sherut avodas kodesh (ministry) of mavet chiseled in letters engraved on luchot of stone came with kavod, so that the Bnei Yisroel were not able to gaze into the face of Moshe#3:7 Rabbeinu because of P'NI MOSHE KI KARON#3:7 Ex 34:35 (face of Moshe Rabbeinu that he was radiant) because of the kavod of his face, the kavod which is fading,#3:7 Ex 34:29-34
8Then how much more will the avodas kodesh ministry of the Ruach Hakodesh come in kavod (glory)?
9For if there was kavod in the Sherut avodas kodesh of harsha'ah (condemnation),#3:9 Dt 27:26; Ro 8:1 how much more abounds in kavod the ministry of tzedek,#3:9 Dan 9:24
10For indeed what once had kavod has lost its kavod#3:10 Ex 34:29-30 on account of the surpassing kavod (glory).
11For if the thing which now is fading away came with kavod, much more has that which remains come in kavod.
12Since, then, we have such a tikvah (hope), we act with much boldness.
13And we are not as Moshe,#3:13 Rabbeinu who was putting HAMASVEH Al PANAV#3:13 Ex 34:33,35 (the veil over his face) so that the Bnei Yisroel might not see the end of the fading kavod.
14But their minds were hardened;#3:14 Ro 11:25 for until the present day the same veil remains at the Kri'at HaSefer Torah (the reading of Torah in shul), because the veil is taken away in Moshiach.
15But even today, whenever Moshe#3:15 Rabbeinu is being read, a veil lies on their levavot.
16But whenever one turns to Adoneinu HAMASVEH is taken away.#3:16 Ex 34:34; Isa 25:7; Ro 11:23-26
17Now Adoneinu is HaRuach and where HaRuach Adoneinu is, there is cherut (freedom).#3:17 Isa 61:1,2; Jn 7:39; 8:32,36; Ro 8:2; Ga 5:1,13
18Now all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the kavod of Adoneinu#3:18 Ex 16:7; 24:17 as if reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same demut from kavod to kavod, even as from HaAdon, HaRuach.
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