2CORINTHIANS 2:14-3:18 MINISTERS OF THE NEW COVENANT

But thanks be to GOD, who ALWAYS LEADS us in TRIUMPHAL procession in CHRIST and through us SPREADS EVERYWHERE the FRAGRANCE of the KNOWLEDGE of GOD. For WE are to GOD the AROMA of CHRIST among those who are being SAVED and those who are PERISHING. To the ONE WE are the SMELL of  DEATH; to the OTHER, the FRAGRANCE of LIFE. And who is EQUAL to such a task? Unlike so many, WE do not PEDDLE the WORD of GOD for PROFIT. On the CONTRARY, IN CHRIST WE SPEAK BEFORE GOD WITH SINCERITY, LIKE MEN SENT FROM GOD.

Are WE beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do WE need, like some people, letters of recommendation to YOU or from YOU?  YOU yourselves are OUR letter, WRITTEN on OUR HEARTS, known and read by EVERBODY. YOU SHOW that YOU are a letter from CHRIST, the RESULT of OUR MINISTRY, WRITTEN not with ink but with the SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD, not on tablets of STONE but on tablets of HUMAN HEARTS.

Such CONFIDENCE as this is OURS through CHRIST before GOD. Not that WE are COMPETENT in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but OUR COMPETENCE come from GOD. HE has made US COMPETENT as MINISTERS of a NEW COVENANT- not of the letter but of the SPIRIT; for the letter KILLS, but the SPIRIT GIVES LIFE.

THE GLORY OF THE NEW COVENANT

Now if the MINISTRY that brought DEATH, which was ENGRAVED in letters on STONE, came with GLORY, so that the ISRAELITES could not look steadily at the face of MOSES because of its GLORY, fading through it was, will not the MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT be even more GLORIOUS? If the MINISTRY that CONDEMNS MEN (THE OLD COVENANT) is GLORIOUS, how much more GLORIOUS is the MINISTRY that brings RIGHTEOUSNESS! (THE NEW COVENANT) For what was GLORIOUS has no GLORY now in COMPARISON with the SURPASSING GLORY.(THE NEW COVENANT) And if what was FADING away came with GLORY, how much GREATER is the GLORY of that which LAST! (THE NEW COVENANT)

THEREFORE, since WE have such a HOPE, WE are VERY BOLD. We are not like MOSES, who would put a VEIL over his face to keep the ISRAELITES from gazing at it while the RADIANCE was FADING away. But their MINDS were made DULL, for to this day the same VEIL remains when the OLD COVENANT is read. It has not been removed, because ONLY IN CHRIST IS IT TAKEN AWAY. Even to this day when MOSES is read, a VEIL covers their HEARTS. (INNER MAN) But whenever anyone turns to the LORD, the VEIL is taken away. Now the LORD is the SPIRIT, and where the SPIRIT of the LORD is, there is FREEDOM. And WE, who with UNVEILED FACES all REFLECT the LORD,S GLORY, are being TRANSFORMED into the LORD,S  LIKENESS with EVER-INCREASING GLORY, which comes from the LORD, WHO IS THE SPIRIT.         AMEN!