Study Desk

We are not saying that we can do this work ourselves. It is God who makes us able to do all that we do.

If the law that judged people guilty of sin had glory, surely the new way that makes people right with God has much greater glory.

God, with his mercy, gave us this work to do, so we don't give up.

But we have turned away from secret and shameful ways. We use no trickery, and we do not change the teaching of God. We teach the truth plainly, showing everyone who we are. Then they can know in their hearts what kind of people we are in God's sight.

The devil who rules this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. They cannot see the light of the Good News—the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is exactly like God.

God once said, "Let the light shine out of the darkness!" This is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts by letting us know the glory of God that is in the face of Christ.

We have this treasure from God, but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows that the great power is from God, not from us.

We are persecuted, but God does not leave us. We are hurt sometimes, but we are not destroyed.

God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, and we know that God will also raise us with Jesus. God will bring us together with you, and we will stand before him.

All these things are for you. And so the grace of God that is being given to more and more people will bring increasing thanks to God for his glory.

We know that our body—the tent we live in here on earth—will be destroyed. But when that happens, God will have a house for us. It will not be a house made by human hands; instead, it will be a home in heaven that will last forever.

But now we groan in this tent. We want God to give us our heavenly home,

This is what God made us for, and he has given us the Spirit to be a guarantee for this new life.

Our only goal is to please God whether we live here or there,

Since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to help people accept the truth about us. God knows what we really are, and I hope that in your hearts you know, too.

If we are out of our minds, it is for God. If we have our right minds, it is for you.

All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between us and himself, and God gave us the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with him.

God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God did not hold the world guilty of its sins. And he gave us this message of peace.

So we have been sent to speak for Christ. It is as if God is calling to you through us. We speak for Christ when we beg you to be at peace with God.

Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could become right with God.