Body and spirit; one person

Not only am I flesh and blood; a body of unconscious responses with a determined mind, lodged in a complex interaction of matter with the environment, I am spirit. It is my spirit, the invisible me, that breathes life into this body and makes me alive, a person, the image of God.
And why spirit? You cannot touch it, measure it or weigh it but I believe in it; I am more than the sum of my parts; I am more than complex chemistry. With my spirit I know God; I worship him, praise him and delight in him. This eternal relationship is the fire in my heart that gives me a glimpse of true love and true freedom – I am alive.
The tragedy is that this relationship is broken and has to be mended. My experience of life is that something other than spirit seeks to drive my choices. And my spirit despairs at the hopeless choices I make and the painful thoughts I think as I struggle with the hurts of life and selfishness – I am dead.
The curse is my having to make choices based on my own needs and knowledge. My own knowledge of good and evil is fallible and crooked, drawing on death. Freedom comes from a restored relationship with God in Christ. Our choices are guided by endless rules and taboos, reactions and hurts, and we are driven to do what we think is right through guilt and the fear of punishment or we choose to make no conscious decision at all and ignore the issue, choosing to follow our urges, the path of least resistance and our fantasies.
Jesus cuts through this weight of law; the laws of nurture and nature, and says plainly, all is resolved in love; the love of God and our neighbour. The only free choice is moment by moment love of God and our neighbour.
And the light in everyman’s heart confirms this, driving back the darkness of our broken relationship with God calling us to choose life in Christ. Jesus not only speaks the word of truth he is the way of truth. In him we know God and Jesus provides the way to God, washing us clean from guilt and condemnation, taking on himself the pain and punishment of our death. And so in this world of guilt and shame we act with hope, made right with God through the righteousness of Jesus.
In Christ we are made right with God. Each day, each moment, each choice is made in Christ because we love God and we love our neighbour, the image of God. No longer are we enslaved to laws and driven by guilt, we live in the light of God’s grace, Jesus Christ, freed to love, living in the spirit.
Difficult choices and horrible hurts are now encountered through the spirit, perfecting our relationship with God. We might not look much and we may not appear much, but we are fired by a love for God and our neighbour which brings peace through God’s grace for each moment, painting a much larger canvas.