⁶ He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant^(A)—not of the letter^(B) but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.^(C)

The Greater Glory of the New Covenant

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death,^(D) 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,^(E) transitory though it was, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

⁶³ The Spirit gives life;^(A) the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit^[a] and life.

²⁸ A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly,^(A) nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.^{(B) 29} No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart,^(C) by the Spirit,^(D) not by the written code.^(E) Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.^(F)

⁶ But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law^(A) so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.^(B)

⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life^(A) actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^(B) deceived me,^(C) and through the commandment put me to death.

² because through Christ Jesus^(A) the law of the Spirit who gives life^(B) has set you^[a] free^(C) from the law of sin^(D) and death.

⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh^(A) but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.^(B) And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,^(C) they do not belong to Christ.

¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit^(A) that we are God’s children.^(B)