In Us We Know That He Lives!

Michael E. Wood
May 24, 2011

Colossians 1:12-15
...giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption; the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Romans 5:5
and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given us.

From Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin book 1 chapter 15:

“.. man was created in the image of God. For though the divine glory is displayed in man’s outward appearance, it cannot be doubted that the proper seat of the image is in the soul.”


“Only let it be understood, that the image of God which is beheld or made conspicuous by these external marks, is spiritual.”


“…our deliverance begins with that renovation which we obtain from Christ, who is, therefore, called the second Adam, because He restores us to true and substantial integrity.”


“We now see how Christ is the most perfect image of God, into which we are so renewed as to bear the image of God in knowledge, purity, righteousness, and true holiness.”


“…the image of God… is now partly seen in the elect, in so far as they are regenerated by the Spirit. Its full luster, however, will be displayed in heaven.”


“The likeness must be within, in himself. It must be something which is not external to him, but is properly the internal good of the soul.”

What a delight and privilege it is that we have been given to witness the love and the power of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ to set us free from self and sin which has been and continues to be manifest to us by His Spirit dwelling within.

The kindness of God is measured not
By what you see without,
But only by the love within
He poured by His Spirit to shout-
Out the victory that He alone
Through Christ Jesus our Lord
Secured when He arose from death,
Now peace with God to afford.


As Jesus bore the load of all
Our sin and all our pride
It was His death and resurrection
By which we were justified
From all the sin by which the image
Of God when we were created
Was marred so much the wrath of God
Could no other way be abated.


For at the core of our fallen nature
God’s glory we sought to steal
Inherent by the lie believed
In Adam at Satan’s appeal.
But God in mercy unfathomable
Stretched out His omniscient hand
To reform a remnant for His
Glory by Sovereign command.


With all the law fulfilled in Christ
We may to the throne boldly go
And trust Him for the grace He gives
That He above all we may know.
And as He is our great delight
No longer for just what He gives,
He is our treasure beyond all measure
And in us we know that He lives!