1  As I write these things about myself, I am [RHQ] not doing it to boast about how good I am, as some of you say I do. Some people always carry letters with them that tell how well they work, that other people have written. But I do not [RHQ] need to bring letters like that when I come to you. Nor do I need to ask you to write letters like that for me when I go to other congregations. 2 You yourselves are [MET] like a letter that recommends my work for God to everyone. People see how Christ changed your lives when you believed the message that I taught you. Everyone who knows you can see the result of my work for God. 3 You are [MET] like a letter that Christ himself has written that says good things about my work for God in your lives. You show people by the way you now conduct your lives that God has changed your lives as a result of my work among you. People did not find out about you by reading a letter that was written to them on paper with pen and ink. Instead, they saw how the Spirit of the all-powerful God has changed your lives. Nor did people find out about you by reading a letter that was carved on stone slabs like the stone slabs that God gave to Moses. Instead, it was the change that God’s Spirit made in your lives [MET] that they saw.

4 I can very confidently write these things about the work that Silas, Timothy, and I did among you, because God knows that what I write is true. We(exc) are true workers for God because of what Christ has done for us. 5 We (exc), by ourselves, do not have the ability to do this work. None of us apostles can say, “I have changed the lives of these people.” God is the one who has given us this ability. 6 He is the one who enables us (exc) to be his messengers. He has enabled us to tell people the message about the new agreement that he is making with them. This is not a message about obeying all the written laws of his old agreement that he made with the Jewish people. Instead, it is a message about God giving us his Spirit. Previously, God condemned people to be separated from him forever if they did not obey his laws. But by God’s new agreement his Spirit enables people to live eternally.

7  Moses taught the people that if they did not obey God’s laws completely they would be separated from God forever. God wrote his laws on stone slabs. Then he gave them to Moses to teach them to the people. Although God’s laws condemned the people to die, when Moses brought those laws down from Sinai Mountain, God caused Moses’ face to shine Moses’ face to shine radiantly to show the people that these laws were God’s laws. It shone. so brightly that the people of Israel could not keep looking at Moses’ face. They had to look away. But the brightness was slowly fading away. 8  So, since God showed in such a wonderful way that those laws that condemned the people to die were from him, surely when we (exc) teach people about how God’s Spirit will change their lives, God will show in an even more wonderful way that it is his message. [RHQ] 9 The message that Moses taught them was wonderful, but when people heard that message, they realized that they were sinners and that God would punish them. But God’s message that we (exc) teach is a much more wonderful message. We teach people that God will ◄erase the record of/declare people no longer guilty for► the sinful things that they have done. 10  The truth is that, although the work of teaching the people to obey God’s laws was once important, it is not as important now, because the work of teaching people that God will forgive them and enable them to live to please him is far more important. 11 Furthermore, the message that Moses taught was not a lasting message, just like the brightness on his face was not lasting and soon faded away. But when God gives his Spirit to people, the wonderful work that God’s Spirit does in their lives is much greater because it lasts forever.

12 We (exc) know that the message that we teach is a much more wonderful message than the message that Moses taught. So we can preach boldly. 13 We do not need to put a veil over our faces when we teach people, as Moses did. Moses put a veil over his face so that the Israelites would not see that the radiance on his face soon faded away. Similarly, the glory of the old agreement has also faded away. 14 But the Israelis stubbornly refused to understand that the old agreement would end. Even now, when they read the old agreement, they still do not realize that it has ended. It is as if [MET] that same veil that Moses put on his face is now over their minds, keeping them from understanding God’s true message. They will understand that message only when they come to trust in Christ. Then it will be as though God has removed the veil. 15  Throughout all these years, even until now, when the Israelis read what Moses write, it is as though a veil is covering their minds. 16 But when any of them believes in the Lord Jesus, God removes that veil from them. 17  It is by the power of his Spirit that the Lord works in our lives, and the Lord’s Spirit has set us free from trying to obey all the rules and rituals that God gave Moses. 18  It is as though God has removed the veil from our faces [MET]. We realize how awesome Jesus is. As we realize that, we are continually being changed {the Holy Spirit is continually changing us} to become more and more like Jesus, so that people can see, more and more, how awesome Jesus is. It is the Spirit of the Lord who does this.