3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves^(A) again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation^(B) to you or from you? ² You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone.^{(C) 3} You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God,^(D) not on tablets of stone^(E) but on tablets of human hearts.^(F)

⁴ Such confidence^(G) we have through Christ before God. ⁵ Not that we are competent in ourselves^(H) to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.^{(I) 6} He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant^(J)—not of the letter^(K) but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.^(L)

The Greater Glory of the New Covenant

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death,^(M) which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory,^(N) transitory though it was, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ⁹ If the ministry that brought condemnation^(O) was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!^{(P) 10} For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. ¹¹ And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law^(A) through the body of Christ,^(B) that you might belong to another,^(C) to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were in the realm of the flesh,^[a](D) the sinful passions aroused by the law^(E) were at work in us,^(F) so that we bore fruit for death.^{(G) 6} But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law^(H) so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.^(I)

The Law and Sin

⁷ What shall we say, then?^(J) Is the law sinful? Certainly not!^(K) Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.^(L) For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^[b](M)

¹² For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also.

¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles^(A) at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.^{(B) 11} For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,”^[a](C) also said, “You shall not murder.”^[b](D) If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.