I love Paul's confidence. He knows he has done good work with the church in Corinth as he writes, "you yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. 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."
And then in the very next paragraph, Paul gives the reason for his confidence. "Not that we are competant in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God." Paul doesn't shy away from the reality that he's conducted a successful ministry, and yet he knows that this success is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit. Awesome.
Paul concludes by contrasting the glory of the old covenant with that of the new covenant in Christ, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit among followers of Jesus. I love verse 18, where we are told that we are able to reflect the Lord's glory while being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Holy Spirit. Awesome again.
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