Ministers of a New Covenant 1 UDB You know us well, and you should trust us. A stranger might need someone you know to write you a letter to introduce him to you, but you know us very well. BSB BSB: Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
2 UDB You yourselves are like a letter that introduces us to other people, because everyone who knows you can see how much you trust us. BSB BSB: You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by everyone.
3 UDB The way you live is like a letter that Christ himself has written and that we brought to you. Of course, it is not a letter written with ink or on stone tablets. No, it is a letter that the Spirit of the true God has written on your own hearts. BSB BSB: It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
4 UDB This is how we trust God, because we are joined to Christ. BSB BSB: Such confidence before God is ours through Christ.
5 UDB We are not able to do anything for God in our own strength, so we cannot claim to be able to. Instead, it is God who gives us all we need to serve him. BSB BSB: Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.
6 UDB God gave us what we needed to be servants of the new covenant. This covenant does not get its strength from the law that was written down but from the Spirit of God. The written letter of the law brings death, but the Spirit gives life. BSB BSB: And He 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.
The Glory of the New Covenant (Exodus 34:10–35)
7 UDB God's law brings death, and he wrote it on stone tablets, and he gave it to Moses. It came with the brilliant light that always shines where God is. And that glory shined on Moses's face; his face shined so brightly that the people of Israel could not look at his face. That bright light slowly faded from his face. BSB BSB: Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory,
8 UDB How much more brightly does the ministry of the Spirit shine! BSB BSB: will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
9 UDB Even the law shined with God's brilliant light. But that brilliant light of the law can only bring death to everyone. So how very much more does his brilliant light shine in us when God makes us right with himself! BSB BSB: For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of righteousness!
10 UDB When the brilliant light of the law is compared with God's work of putting us right with himself, it is as if the law is not wonderful at all because what replaced it is so much more wonderful! BSB BSB: Indeed, what was once glorious has no glory now in comparison to the glory that surpasses it.
11 UDB So you can see that the law, which is passing away, was wonderful. But you can also see that what is replacing it will be even more wonderful, and it will last forever. BSB BSB: For if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which endures!
12 UDB Since we apostles trust in God for the future, we have great courage. BSB BSB: Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
13 UDB We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the children of Israel would not have to look at the fading light from God. BSB BSB: We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was fading away.
14 UDB Long ago, the children of Israel refused to believe God's message. Even today, when the old law is read, they wear that same veil. Only when we are joined with Christ does God take the veil away. BSB BSB: But their minds were closed. For to this day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant. It has not been lifted, because only in Christ can it be removed.
15 UDB Yes, even today, whenever they read the law of Moses, it is as if they had a veil over their minds. BSB BSB: And even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
16 UDB But when a person turns to the Lord, God removes that veil. BSB BSB: But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 UDB Now the word "Lord" here means "the Spirit." Where the Spirit of the Lord is, people become free. BSB BSB: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 UDB But for all of us who believe, we look at him with no veil over our faces, and we reflect his brilliant light more and more. This is what the Lord does, and he is the Spirit. BSB BSB: And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.