I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.
May your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless.
Psalm 139, 14; 1 Thessalonians 5, 23.
After calling into existence the living creatures that inhabit the seas, the air and the land, God created man, the final masterpiece of a perfect creation. He breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a “living soul” (cf. Genesis 2, 7). That divine breath made man a separate creature, distinct from and raised above animals.
This marvellous creature man has a body, the material part of his being in relation to the outside world, and a spirit and soul; these constitute the spiritual part of man, which is immortal, responsible and intelligent. Thanks to his spirit man can enter into contact with his Creator, which animals cannot. The human body is admirable, and the faculties of the spirit and the soul are no less so. Man can think, reflect, reason, study and compare. He is gifted with a memory, he can wish for things and make decisions and plans. He can feel, love, hope, and experience happiness.
From the start God wished to establish a relationship with man. But that relationship was ruined by sin, and the whole of mankind turned its back on God.
Jesus came to reconcile man with God by giving His life on the cross. To all who believe in Him He grants new life: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5, 17). The Lord Jesus brings them into a new, more intimate relationship, that of “children of God (John 1, 12). He renews their thoughts, their heart, their spirit and relieves their conscience.