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1We do not need any more to show that our work is good. Some people need to have letters from other people to say that they do good work. We do not need to show you letters like that. Nor do we need you to write a letter like that for us.
2You yourselves show that we have done good work. You are like a letter that is written on our lives. Everybody can read that letter and they can understand it.
3It is clear that you are like a letter that Christ himself has written. We are the people who brought God's message to you. Now people see what God has done in your lives. That is like a letter that they read. But it is not a letter written on paper with ink. It is the Spirit of the living God who wrote it. He did not write it on pieces of stone. Instead, he wrote it deep inside you.[#3:3 Moses wrote the of on pieces of stone. See Exodus 34:27-28.]
4We know that these things are true. Because of what Christ has done, we trust God to help us.
5We know that we cannot do this work by ourselves. We never think that. But God makes us able to do it.
6God has made us his servants. So we are able to tell people the message of his new covenant . This new covenant is not about rules that someone has written down. Instead, it comes from God's Spirit. Rules bring death as a punishment . But God's Spirit brings new life to us, not death.[#3:6 See Jeremiah 31:31-33. People are never good enough to obey God's rules completely. They needed God himself to save them from and from death. That is the good news of the new .]
7Moses wrote the words of the old covenant on pieces of stone. It showed how great and powerful God was. Moses' face shone brightly after God spoke to him. It did not stay bright, but the Israelite people still could not look at Moses' face.[#3:7 Moses was a great leader of the Israelites, who gave to the people.; #3:7 The Israelites were the of Jacob, who was also called Israel. Jacob's 12 sons became the of Israel's 12 . The land that God gave to them as their home was called Israel.]
8So the new covenant, which comes from God's Spirit, will show the power of God even more.
9The old covenant showed people that they were guilty . But God's new covenant makes people right with him. So the new covenant shows God's power even more than the old one did!
10The old covenant was great and powerful at one time. But now we have God's new covenant instead of the old one. The great power of the new covenant shows that the old covenant is no longer powerful.
11The old covenant was powerful, but it came to an end. God's new covenant will continue always. So it surely shows the power of God even more!
12So, because we know all this, we speak God's message bravely.
13We are not like Moses. His face did not continue to be bright with the light from God. So he covered his face with a cloth. He did not want the Israelite people to see that the light was coming to an end.
14But those Israelite people could not think properly. Even today, they still do not understand the message of God's old covenant. When they read it, they are like people who have a cloth that covers their minds. It continues like that unless they believe in Christ. Then Christ removes the cloth so that they understand.
15Even today, when the Israelite people read Moses' books, a cloth still covers their minds.
16But when a person turns to trust the Lord , then God takes the cloth away.[#3:16 See Exodus 34:29-35.]
17The Lord is the same as the Spirit. And when the Lord's Spirit is with anyone, that person is free.
18We show the power of the Lord to other people. It is like God has removed a cloth from over our faces. He is changing us so that we become more and more like him. We show how great God is more and more clearly. It is the Lord God who does all this, by the work of his Spirit.