Chapter 3

¹Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need (as some do) epistles of commendation to you, or from you? ²You are our epistle, written in our hearts, which is known and read by all men: ³Being manifested, that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart. ⁴And such confidence we have, through Christ, towards God. ⁵Not that we are sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God. ⁶Who also hath made us fit ministers of the new testament, not in the letter, but in the spirit. For the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth. ⁷Now if the ministration of death, engraven with letters upon stones, was glorious; so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which is made void: ⁸How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather in glory? ⁹For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more the ministration of justice aboundeth in glory. ¹⁰For even that which was glorious in this part was not glorified, by reason of the glory that excelleth. ¹¹For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is in glory. ¹²Having therefore such hope, we use much confidence: ¹³And not as Moses put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel might not steadfastly look on the face of that which is made void. ¹⁴But their senses were made dull. For, until this present day, the selfsame veil, in the reading of the old testament, remaineth not taken away (because in Christ it is made void). ¹⁵But even until this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. ¹⁶But when they shall be converted to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. ¹⁷Now the Lord is a Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸But we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.