Lockman - Bible questions and answers

		2 Cor 3:1 Are we starting to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some [false teachers], letters of recommendation to you or from you? [No!]
		2 Cor 3:2 You are our letter [of recommendation], written in our hearts, recognized and read by everyone.
		2 Cor 3:3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. [Ex 24:12; 31:18; 32:15, 16; Jer 31:33]
		2 Cor 3:4 ¶ Such is the confidence and steadfast reliance and absolute trust that we have through Christ toward God.
		2 Cor 3:5 Not that we are sufficiently qualified in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency and qualifications come from God.
		2 Cor 3:6 He has qualified us [making us sufficient] as ministers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not of the letter [of a written code] but of the Spirit; for the letter [of the Law] kills [by revealing sin and demanding obedience], but the Spirit gives life. [Jer 31:31]
		2 Cor 3:7 ¶ Now if the ministry of death, engraved in letters on stones [the covenant of the Law which led to death because of sin], came with such glory and splendor that the Israelites were not able to look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, [a brilliance] that was fading, [Ex 34:29-35]
		2 Cor 3:8 how will the ministry of the Spirit [the new covenant which allows us to be Spirit-filled] fail to be even more glorious and splendid?
		2 Cor 3:9 For if the ministry that brings condemnation [the old covenant, the Law] has glory, how much more does glory overflow in the ministry that brings righteousness [the new covenant which declares believers free of guilt and sets them apart for God's special purpose]!
		2 Cor 3:10 Indeed, what had glory [the Law], in this case no longer has glory because of the glory that surpasses it [the gospel].
		2 Cor 3:11 For if that [Law] which fades away came with glory, how much more must that [gospel] which remains and is permanent abide in glory and splendor!
		2 Cor 3:12 *¶ Since we have such a [glorious] hope and* confident expectation, we speak with great courage,**
		2 Cor 3:13 and we are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites would not gaze at the end of the glory which was fading away.
		2 Cor 3:14 But [in fact] their minds were hardened [for they had lost the ability to understand]; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed [only] in Christ.
		2 Cor 3:15 But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil [of blindness] lies over their heart;
		2 Cor 3:16 but whenever a person turns [in repentance and faith] to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
		2 Cor 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [emancipation from bondage, true freedom]. [Is 61:1, 2]
		2 Cor 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.

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