DO
we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as
some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of
commendation from you?
2 Ye are
our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch
as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us,
written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of
stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 And such
trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that
we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our
sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also
hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not
of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth,
but the spirit giveth life.
7 But if
the ministration of death, written and engraven
in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel
could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the
glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 How
shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For if
the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the
ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For
even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of
the glory that excelleth.
11 For if
that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
12 Seeing
then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 And
not as Moses, which put a vail over his face,
that the children of Israel
could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is
abolished:
14 But
their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth
the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail
is done away in Christ.
15 But
even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is
upon their heart.
16 Nevertheless
when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be
taken away.
17 Now
the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty.
18 But we
all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord.
