2 Corinthians 3 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

Ministers of a New Covenant

1Are we starting to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

2You are our letter, written in our hearts, recognized and read by everyone.

3You show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4Such is the confidence and steadfast reliance and absolute trust that we have through Christ toward God.

5Not that we are sufficiently qualified in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency and qualifications come from God.

6He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7Now if the ministry of death, engraved in letters on stones, came with such glory and splendor that the Israelites were not able to look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, that was fading,

8how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more glorious and splendid?

9For if the ministry that brings condemnation has glory, how much more does glory overflow in the ministry that brings righteousness!

10Indeed, what had glory, in this case no longer has glory because of the glory that surpasses it.

11For if that which fades away came with glory, how much more must that which remains and is permanent abide in glory and splendor!

12Since we have such a hope and confident expectation, we speak with great courage,

13and we are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites would not gaze at the end of the glory which was fading away.

14But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.

15But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;

16but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

18And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from glory to glory, which comes from the Lord, the Spirit.