Some false teachers had started carrying forged letters of recommendation to authenticate their authority. In no uncertain terms, Paul stated that he needed no such letters. The believers to whom Paul and his companions had preached were enough of a recommendation. Paul did use letters of introduction, however, many times. He wrote them on behalf of Phoebe and Timothy.

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Cross-reference Romans 16:1, 2
   (1)I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea. (2)I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me.

Cross-reference 1st Corinthians 16:10, 11
   (10)If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am. (11)No one, then, should refuse to accept him. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me. I am expecting him along with the brothers.

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   These letters helped Paul's trusted companions and friends find a welcome in various churches.
   Paul uses powerful imagery from famous Old Testament passages predicting the promised day of new hearts and new beginnings for God's people.

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   No human minister can take credit for this process of conversion. It is the work of God's Spirit. We do not become believers by following some manual or using some technique. Our conversion is a result of God's implanting his Spirit in our hearts, giving us new power to live for him.

   Paul was not boasting; he gave God the credit for all his accomplishments. While the false teachers boasted of their own power and prestige, Paul expressed his humility before God. No one can claim to be adequate without God's help. No one is competent to carry out the responsibilities of God's calling in his or her own strength. Without the Holy Spirit's enabling, our natural talent can carry us only so far. As Christ's witnesses, we need the character and special strength that only God gives.
   "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" means that trying to be saved by keeping the Old Testament laws will end in death. Only by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ can a person receive eternal life through the Holy Spirit. No one but Jesus has ever fulfilled the law perfectly, and thus the whole world is condemned to death. The law makes people realize their sin, but it cannot give life. Under the new covenant, which means promise or agreement, eternal life comes from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives new life to all who believe in Christ. The moral law (Ten Commandments) still points out sin and shows us how to obey God, but forgiveness comes only through the grace and mercy of Christ (see Romans 7:10—8:2).

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Cross-reference Romans 7:10-8:2
(10)I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
   (11)For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. (12)So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. (13)Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
   (14)We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. (15)I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (16)And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. (17)As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. (18)I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. (19)For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. (20)Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
   (21)So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. (22)For in my inner being I delight in God's law; (23)but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. (24)What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (25)Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!
   So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
   (8:1)Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (2)because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

   Paul contrasts the glory of the Ten Commandments with the glory of the life-giving Spirit. If the law that leads to death, was glorious, how much more glorious is God's plan to give us life through his Spirit! The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is far superior to the Old Testament system of sacrifice (see Hebrews 8; 10 for a more complete discussion). If Christianity is superior to the Judaism of the Old Testament, which was the highest form of religion on earth, it will surely be superior to any other religion we may come across. Because God's plan is wonderful by comparison to any other, we dare not reject it or treat it casually.
   Paul is saying that if the old covenant had its glory (and certainly it did), just imagine how glorious the new covenant is. The law was wonderful because, although it condemned us, it pointed us to Christ. But in the new covenant, the law and the promise are fulfilled. Christ has come - by faith we can be justified (made right with God)!

   When Moses came down Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, his face glowed from being in God's presence (Exodus 34:29-35).

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Cross-reference Exodus 34:29-35
   (29)When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. (30)When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. (31)But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. (32)Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.
   (33)When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. (34)But whenever he entered the LORD's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, (35)they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

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   Moses had to put on a veil to keep the people from being terrified by the brightness of his face. Paul adds that this veil kept them from seeing the radiance fade away. Moses and his veil illustrate the fading of the old system and the veiling of the people's minds and understanding by their pride, hardness of heart, and refusal to repent. The veil kept them from understanding the references to Christ in the Scriptures. When anyone becomes a Christian, Christ removes the veil (3:16), giving eternal life and freedom from trying to be saved by keeping laws. And without the veil, we can be like mirrors reflecting God's glory.

   Those who were trying to be saved by keeping the Old Testament law were soon tied up in rules and ceremonies. But now, through the Holy Spirit, God provides freedom from sin and condemnation. When we trust Christ to save us, he removes our heavy burden of trying to please him and our guilt for failing to do so. By trusting Christ we are loved, accepted, forgiven, and freed to live for him. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
   The glory that the Spirit imparts to the believer is more excellent and lasts longer than the glory that Moses experienced. By gazing at the nature of God with unveiled minds, we can be more like him. In the gospel, we see the truth about Christ, and it transforms us morally as we understand and apply it. Through learning about Christ's life, we can understand how wonderful God is and what he is really like. As our knowledge deepens, the Holy Spirit helps us to change. Becoming Christlike is a progressive experience.

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Cross-reference Romans 8:29
(29)For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Cross-reference Galatians 4:19
(19)My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,...

Cross-reference Philippians 3:21
(21)who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Cross-reference 1st John 3:2
(2)Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

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   The more closely we follow Christ, the more we will be like him.