1 Begin ons weer om onsself aan te beveel? Of het ons miskien, soos sommige, aanbevelingsbriewe nodig aan julle of van julle?
2 Julle is ons brief, geskrywe in ons harte, geken en gelees deur alle mense;
3 omdat julle duidelik 'n brief van Christus is deur ons diens berei, geskrywe nie met ink nie, maar met die Gees van die lewende God; nie op kliptafels nie, maar op die vleestafels van die hart.
4 So 'n vertroue het ons deur Christus by God.
5 Nie dat ons uit onsself bekwaam is om iets as uit onsself te bedink nie, maar ons bekwaamheid is uit God,
6 wat ons ook bekwaam gemaak het as dienaars van 'n nuwe testament, nie van die letter nie, maar van die gees; want die letter maak dood, maar die gees maak lewend.
7 En as die bediening van die dood, met letters op klippe gegraveer, in heerlikheid was, sodat die kinders van Israel nie die oë kon vestig op die aangesig van Moses nie vanweë die heerlikheid van sy aangesig, wat tog moes vergaan,
8 hoeveel te meer sal die bediening van die Gees dan nie in heerlikheid wees nie?
9 Want as die bediening wat veroordeel, heerlikheid was, veel meer is die bediening wat regverdig maak, oorvloedig in heerlikheid.
10 Want wat verheerlik was, is ook in hierdie geval nie verheerlik nie, vanweë die alles oortreffende heerlikheid.
11 Want as wat moes vergaan, met heerlikheid was, veel meer is wat moet bly, in heerlikheid.
12 Terwyl ons dan sodanige hoop het, gebruik ons baie vrymoedigheid;
13 nie soos Moses nie, wat 'n bedekking oor sy aangesig gesit het, sodat die kinders van Israel nie die oë kon vestig op die einde van wat moes vergaan nie.
14 Maar hulle sinne is verhard. Want tot vandag toe bly by die lesing van die Ou Testament dieselfde bedekking sonder dat dit opgelig word, die bedekking wat in Christus vernietig word.
15 Ja, tot vandag toe, wanneer Moses gelees word, lê daar 'n bedekking oor hulle hart;
16 maar wanneer hulle tot die Here bekeer is, word die bedekking weggeneem.
17 Die Here is die Gees, en waar die Gees van die Here is, daar is vryheid.
18 En terwyl ons almal met onbedekte gesig soos in 'n spieël die heerlikheid van die Here aanskou, word ons van gedaante verander na dieselfde beeld, van heerlikheid tot heerlikheid, as deur die Here wat die Gees is.
1 Do we seem to be again attempting to put ourselves in the right? or have we need, as some have, of letters of approval to you or from you?
2 You yourselves are our letter, whose writing is in our heart, open for every man's reading and knowledge;
3 For you are clearly a letter of Christ, the fruit of our work, recorded not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in stone, but in hearts of flesh.
4 And this is the certain faith which we have in God through Christ:
5 Not as if we were able by ourselves to do anything for which we might take the credit; but our power comes from God;
6 Who has made us able to be servants of a new agreement; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter gives death, but the Spirit gives life.
7 For if the operation of the law, giving death, recorded in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the eyes of the children of Israel had to be turned away from the face of Moses because of its glory, a glory which was only for a time:
8 Will not the operation of the Spirit have a much greater glory?
9 For if the operation of the law, producing punishment, had its glory, how much greater will be the operation of the Spirit causing righteousness?
10 For the glory of the first no longer seems to be glory, because of the greater glory of that which comes after.
11 For if the order which was for a time had its glory, much more will the eternal order have its glory.
12 Having then such a hope, we keep nothing back,
13 And are not like Moses, who put a veil on his face, so that the children of Israel might not see clearly to the end of the present order of things:
14 But their minds were made hard: for to this very day at the reading of the old agreement the same veil is still unlifted; though it is taken away in Christ.
15 But to this day, at the reading of the law of Moses, a veil is over their heart.
16 But when it is turned to the Lord, the veil will be taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there the heart is free.
18 But we all, with unveiled face giving back as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord who is the Spirit.