³You show that you are Christ’s letter,^t delivered^A by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God^u—not on tablets of stone^v but on tablets of human hearts.^B^w

PAUL’S COMPETENCE

⁴Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. ⁵It is not that we are competent in^C ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.^x ⁶He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant,^y not of the letter,^z but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

NEW COVENANT MINISTRY

⁷Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory,^aa so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, ⁸how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? ⁹For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory. ¹⁰In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹For if what was set aside^ab was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

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Footnotes

A ministered to
B fleshly hearts
C from

Cross references

t Phm 13
u Dt 5:26
v Ex 24:12
w Pr 3:3; 7:3; Jr 17:1; 31:33; Ezk 11:19; 36:26; Heb 8:10
x 1Co 15:10
y Lk 22:20; Heb 7:22
z Rm 7:6
aa Ex 34:29–35; Mk 10:37; Lk 9:32; Jn 17:24; 2Co 3:18; 2Pt 3:18
ab Heb 2:14