2 Corinthians3

Paul asserts that the Corinthian believers are his living letter of commendation, written by the Spirit of God on their hearts. He contrasts the Old Covenant, a ministration of death and condemnation, with the New Covenant, a ministration of the Spirit that gives life and righteousness. This new covenant far exceeds the old in glory, removing the veil that obscured understanding and granting liberty and transformation through the Spirit.

The Corinthians: Paul's Letter of Recommendation

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Do we begin again to recommend ourselves, except we need, as some, letters of recommendation unto you, or from you?
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our letter ye are, having been written in our hearts, known and read by all men,
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manifested that ye are a letter of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in the tablets of stone, but in fleshy tablets of the heart,
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and such trust we have through the Christ toward God,
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not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God,

The Sufficiency of the New Covenant Ministry

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who also made us sufficient to be ministrants of a new covenant, not of letter, but of spirit; for the letter doth kill, and the spirit doth make alive.

The Superior Glory of the Spirit

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and if the ministration of the death, in letters, engraved in stones, came in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look stedfastly to the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face--which was being made useless,
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how shall the ministration of the Spirit not be more in glory?
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for if the ministration of the condemnation is glory, much more doth the ministration of the righteousness abound in glory;
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for also even that which hath been glorious, hath not been glorious--in this respect, because of the superior glory;
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for if that which is being made useless is through glory, much more that which is remaining is in glory.

Clarity and Transformation by the Spirit

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Having, then, such hope, we use much freedom of speech,
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and are not as Moses, who was putting a vail upon his own face, for the sons of Israel not stedfastly to look to the end of that which is being made useless,
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but their minds were hardened, for unto this day the same vail at the reading of the Old Covenant doth remain unwithdrawn--which in Christ is being made useless--
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but till to-day, when Moses is read, a vail upon their heart doth lie,
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and whenever they may turn unto the Lord, the vail is taken away.
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And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is , there is liberty;
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and we all, with unvailed face, the glory of the Lord beholding in a mirror, to the same image are being transformed, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
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