Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

Ministers of the New Covenant

3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, letters of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? ² You are our letter written in our hearts, known and read by all men. ³ For you are prominently declared to be the letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on human tablets of the heart.

⁴ We have such trust through Christ toward God, ⁵ not that we are sufficient in ourselves to take credit for anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, ⁶ who has made us able ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ If the ministry that brought death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, the glory which was to fade away, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? ⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation is glorious, the ministry of righteousness much more exceeds it in glory. ¹⁰ Even that which was made glorious had no glory in comparison to the glory that excels. ¹¹ For if that which fades was glorious, that which remains is much more glorious.

¹² Seeing then that we have such hope, we speak with great boldness, ¹³ not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not look intently at the end of what was fading away. ¹⁴ Instead, their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the old covenant, the veil which was done away with in Christ. ¹⁵ But even to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is in their hearts. ¹⁶ Nevertheless when anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸ But we all, seeing the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

4 Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy we have received, we do not lose heart. ² But we have renounced the secret things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by expressing the truth and commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. ³ But if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are lost. ⁴ The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. ⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, the excellency of the power being from God and not from ourselves. ⁸ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ and always carrying around in the body the death of the Lord Jesus, that also the life of Jesus might be expressed in our bodies. ¹¹ For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that also the life of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So then, death works in us, but life in you.

¹³ We have the same spirit of faith. As it is written, “I believed, and therefore I have spoken.”^[a] So we also believe and therefore speak, ¹⁴ knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us through Jesus and will present us with you. ¹⁵ All these things are for your sakes, so that the abundant grace through the thanksgiving of many might overflow to the glory of God.

Living by Faith

¹⁶ For this reason we do not lose heart: Even though our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ Our light affliction, which lasts but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, ¹⁸ while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.