Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

3 Are we starting to recommend ourselves again? Or do we, like some, need letters of recommendation either to you or from you? ² You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. ³ You make it clear that you are a letter from the Messiah placed in our care, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on human hearts.

⁴ Such is the confidence we have through the Messiah toward God. ⁵ It is not that we are competent in ourselves to count anything as having come from us; on the contrary, our competence is from God. ⁶ He has even made us competent to be workers serving a New Covenant, the essence of which is not a written text but the Spirit. For the written text brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ Now if that which worked death, by means of a written text engraved on stone tablets, came with glory — such glory that the people of Isra’el could not stand to look at Moshe’s face because of its brightness, even though that brightness was already fading away — ⁸ won’t the working of the Spirit be accompanied by even greater glory? ⁹ For if there was glory in what worked to declare people guilty, how much more must the glory abound in what works to declare people innocent! ¹⁰ In fact, by comparison with this greater glory, what was made glorious before has no glory now. ¹¹ For if there was glory in what faded away, how much more glory must there be in what lasts.

¹² Therefore, with a hope like this, we are very open — ¹³ unlike Moshe, who put a veil over his face, so that the people of Isra’el would not see the fading brightness come to an end.

¹⁴ What is more, their minds were made stonelike; for to this day the same veil remains over them when they read the Old Covenant; it has not been unveiled, because only by the Messiah is the veil taken away. ¹⁵ Yes, till today, whenever Moshe is read, a veil lies over their heart. ¹⁶ “But,” says the Torah, “whenever someone turns to Adonai, the veil is taken away.”^{[a] 17} Now, “Adonai” in this text means the Spirit. And where the Spirit of Adonai is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord; and we are being changed into his very image, from one degree of glory to the next, by Adonai the Spirit.

4 God has shown us such mercy that we do not lose courage as we do the work he has given us. ² Indeed, we refuse to make use of shameful underhanded methods, employing deception or distorting God’s message. On the contrary, by making very clear what the truth is, we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. ³ So if indeed our Good News is veiled, it is veiled only to those in the process of being lost. ⁴ They do not come to trust because the god of the ‘olam hazeh has blinded their minds, in order to prevent them from seeing the light shining from the Good News about the glory of the Messiah, who is the image of God. ⁵ For what we are proclaiming is not ourselves, but the Messiah Yeshua as Lord, with ourselves as slaves for you because of Yeshua. ⁶ For it is the God who once said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has made his light shine in our hearts, the light of the knowledge of God’s glory shining in the face of the Messiah Yeshua.

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it will be evident that such overwhelming power comes from God and not from us. ⁸ We have all kinds of troubles, but we are not crushed; we are perplexed, yet not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, yet not abandoned; knocked down, yet not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry in our bodies the dying of Yeshua, so that the life of Yeshua may be manifested in our bodies too. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always being handed over to death for Yeshua’s sake, so that Yeshua’s life also might be manifested in our mortal bodies. ¹² Thus death is at work in us but life in you.

¹³ The Tanakh says, “I trusted, therefore I spoke.”^[b] Since we have that same Spirit who enables us to trust, we also trust and therefore speak; ¹⁴ because we know that he who raised the Lord Yeshua will also raise us with Yeshua and bring us along with you into his presence. ¹⁵ All this is for your sakes, so that as grace flows out to more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to overflow and bring glory to God.

¹⁶ This is why we do not lose courage. Though our outer self is heading for decay, our inner self is being renewed daily. ¹⁷ For our light and transient troubles are achieving for us an everlasting glory whose weight is beyond description. ¹⁸ We concentrate not on what is seen but on what is not seen, since things seen are temporary, but things not seen are eternal.