⁵ We are not saying that we ·can do this work ourselves [^Lare able/competent/adequate to consider anything as from ourselves]. ·It is God who makes us able to do all that we do [^LBut our ability/competence/adequacy is from God]. ⁶ He made us ·able [adequate; competent] to be servants of a new ·agreement from himself to his people [covenant; Jer. 31:31–34; Luke 22:20]. This new ·agreement [covenant] is not ·a written law [^Lof the letter], but it is of the Spirit. The ·written law [^Lletter] brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ The ·law [or old system; ^Lministry] that brought death was ·written in words [^Lengraved with letters] on stone. It came with ·God’s glory [^Lglory], which made Moses’ face so ·bright [glorious] that the ·Israelites [^Lchildren of Israel] could not ·continue to look [gaze] at it. But that glory ·later disappeared [was fading; or was made ineffective (by the veil on his face)].