[1] Do we seem to be again attempting to put ourselves in the right? or
have we need, as some have, of letters of approval to you or from you? [2]
You yourselves are our letter, whose writing is in our heart, open for
every man's reading and knowledge; [3] For you are clearly a letter of
Christ, the fruit of our work, recorded not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God; not in stone, but in hearts of flesh. [4] And this is
the certain faith which we have in God through Christ: [5] Not as if we
were able by ourselves to do anything for which we might take the credit;
but our power comes from God; [6] Who has made us able to be servants of a
new agreement; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter gives
death, but the Spirit gives life. [7] For if the operation of the law,
giving death, recorded in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the
eyes of the children of Israel had to be turned away from the face of Moses
because of its glory, a glory which was only for a time: [8] Will not the
operation of the Spirit have a much greater glory? [9] For if the operation
of the law, producing punishment, had its glory, how much greater will be
the operation of the Spirit causing righteousness? [10] For the glory of
the first no longer seems to be glory, because of the greater glory of that
which comes after. [11] For if the order which was for a time had its
glory, much more will the eternal order have its glory. [12] Having then
such a hope, we keep nothing back, [13] And are not like Moses, who put a
veil on his face, so that the children of Israel might not see clearly to
the end of the present order of things: [14] But their minds were made
hard: for to this very day at the reading of the old agreement the same
veil is still unlifted; though it is taken away in Christ. [15] But to this
day, at the reading of the law of Moses, a veil is over their heart. [16]
But when it is turned to the Lord, the veil will be taken away. [17] Now
the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there the
heart is free. [18] But we all, with unveiled face giving back as in a
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to
glory, even as from the Lord who is the Spirit.
