This is the ghostly travail I spake of, and the cause of all this writing is to stir thee thereto, if thou have grace. This darkness of conscience and this nought is the image of the first Adam. St Paul knew it well, for he said thus of it: As we have before borne the image of the earthly man, that is the first Adam, right so that we might now bear the image of the heavenly man, which is Jesus, the second Adam. St Paul bore this image oft full heavily, for it was so cumbersome to him that he cried out of it, saying thus: O who shall Deliver me from this body and this image of death? And then he comforted himself and others also thus: The grace of God through Jesus Christ. (John Climacus)

As Climacus notes, Paul was not happy with his body, and discouraged us from being too happy with our own. Paul explained, "I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." (Romans 7:14-15)

But what are we to make of Jesus? He lived among us fully human. Jesus returned from death in his body. He said, "Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have." (Luke 24:10)

Climacus offers that the issue is not one of body versus spirit, but of a deeper identity that shapes both body and spirit. Conscience is a knowledge-within. How do we know ourselves? To the extent we can know ourselves wholly, the image of the first Adam is replaced entirely by the second.