Confidence or conceit?
1 Are we beginning to promote ourselves again? What?! We need no letters of recommendation, either from you or to you. 2 You yourselves are that letter! You were engraved on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You are the living letter we sent from Christ. This letter was not written in ink but by the Spirit of the Living God; not on stone tablets but on your hearts. 4 This is the basis for our confidence toward God through Christ. 5 And it isn’t as though we ourselves are competent to figure anything out, but that our understanding comes from God. 6 He also qualifies us as servants of the new covenant— not a written one but a spiritual one— because the Law condemns while the Spirit acquits.
Law against life
7 Think about that Law chiseled in stone, the one that condemns. If it came in majesty, so that the people of Israel could not keep watching Moses’ face while the majesty faded, 8 how much greater is the majesty of what is dispensed by the Spirit? 9 If that which condemns had majesty, then think of how much greater is the majesty of that which acquits! 10 In fact, the old majesty has faded because of the new one that outshines it. 11 If that which was destined to fade out had majesty, then think of how much more majesty is there for what remains!
12 So then, because we have this hope we are bold and free— 13 not like Moses who had to cover his face so the people of Israel couldn’t watch the majesty fade away. 14 But up to the present day their minds have been calloused; the covering still remains when they read the old covenant, because only Christ can uncover their minds. 15 To this very day their minds remain covered when Moses is read. 16 But if they ever turn toward the Master, the covering will be removed. 17 The Master is Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Master is, there is freedom. 18 Now all of us, with faces uncovered, reflect the majesty of the Master and are being transformed into the same image, becoming more and more majestic, by the Spirit of the Master.