Bill Johnson - You Are Made in the Image of God to Bear the Image of God
My name is Bill in case you forgot who I am. I’ve been gone a bit. My goodness. Yeah. Thank you. Wow. I just got back from Europe. Interestingly, in the last six weeks, I have been to Indonesia, England twice, France, Norway, Spain, and this week, Canada. In all six of those places, they sang «Holy Forever.» So, in all six places, it was one common denominator. All the different worship teams in these places led that specific song, which made me feel at home. It was fun. But you know what?
The thing is so special; I don’t always bring reports of travel, but this was unique because revival is really hitting Europe. It’s a place where it was almost like missionaries wrote it off as an unreached, unreachable place due to what has happened in recent years. I’ll tell you what—it has just blown up with so many hungry people. People are coming to Christ all the time. My first time in Spain was about 40 years ago, and it was a really tough place to minister. I have great friends there whom I love dearly, and they imparted their vision for the nation. Back then, the mega church was 200, and everyone wondered how they did it. It was the mega church of evangelicalism.
On this trip, I ministered in one church that seated about 1,400. I don’t know how many services they hold every week, but they are famous for helping drug addicts. Many unchurched people and drug addicts come in and get set free. The second church I spoke at is building a sanctuary for 5,000 people. They hold four services. I got to speak at one, which had about 1,400 people packed in. Anyway, that’s in what was considered the hard country, and it’s just happening all over. It’s so encouraging to see that. So, how many of you just have a heart for Europe? How many of you come from Europe? Yeah. All right. How many of you have some European ancestry in your family tree? Yeah, that’s probably most of us. Anyway, it’s so encouraging to see—yeah, so encouraging to see.
My only funny for today—actually, I had one, but it’s too long to read, so I’ll save it for another time when I don’t have anything to say and read that one. My only funny for today is this meme that said, «My favorite thing about the fall is that it’s the time of year when all the mosquitoes go back to hell.» Amen to that! All right. Open your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Genesis, chapter 1. Yeah, Genesis chapter 1. In recent months, I have been provoked and stirred about the promised land and Old Testament stories that portray New Testament believers so well.
I want to go back to one of the original messages the Lord gave me many years ago, which focuses on the commissioning that the Lord gave to Adam and Eve. It’s very specific. I want us to walk through this, and I want to start by saying I believe it’s impossible to have unity without diversity. Unity without diversity ends up being uniformity. That is the ambition of religion, which is to make us all the same. God intentionally created us and designed us differently, and there are borders and boundaries for life that we are to fear and respect because they help us identify uniqueness for the purpose of celebration. I hope I can become mischievous sometime during this day.
Genesis 1:26: «Then God said, 'Let us—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'» So, all you women who have dated creeps, the Lord has authority over all the creeps. And if there are any men in the room who have been creeps, He has dominion over you. I’m just here to let you know. Verse 27: «So God created man.» When He refers to man, He is talking about humanity. In this case, He created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him; male and female He created them. It takes two to reveal one. That’s so good. He created him male and female. He created them. Then God blessed them and said to them, «Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.»
Be fruitful. Be productive with your life. Multiply. Have children who have children. Fill the earth. These delegated ones—let them be released into the earth until the entire earth is under the dominion of God. «Subdue» implies that there are spiritual dark forces that exist on the planet that God placed the Garden of Eden in. So, it’s a military plan from God. The devil is no threat to God. There is no war in the heavens between God and Satan. That’s right—Satan wouldn’t stand a chance. He’s at war with those made in God’s image. That’s good. The point was better than your response, but that’s all right. I’m getting used to it. Oh, don’t look at me in that tone of voice. Sorry.
Verse 28 again: «He blessed them.» Please notice He blessed them and gave them responsibility. That’s good. In the parable of the miners and the parable of the talents, the reward for obedience was increased responsibility. In the Kingdom, functioning in responsibility is life-giving. Yes, service outside the Kingdom is taxing and exhausting. We are replenished in strength by owning up to our assignment and giving ourselves fully to it for the glory of God. That is where return comes from. It builds up strength and a sense of identity and purpose. I’ll just keep at it until I get a response. I’m teasing.
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, «Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.» Chapter 2:8: God said, «It is not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper comparable to him.» Some translations say, «I will give him a helpmeet.» That verse is probably one of the most distorted by interpretation in the Bible because it has implied that God created a woman to be a support to the man so he can succeed. While that’s partially true, it’s not the whole truth because it goes both ways. Each is to help the other become all they were intended to be. It was never about the woman becoming subservient to the man. That’s the implication only because we don’t understand what the word means.
The word «helper» in this verse actually means, if you can picture this, that the wife is fully equipped to stand face-to-face with the man and make up for whatever is lacking in him. Yes. In other words, it is a face-to-face call of equal significance and sufficiency. Yes. Come on. I’m not trying to make a feminist message, nor am I even wanting to talk about marriage today—though I’ll use it as a starting point. This idea of male dominance to illustrate who the Father is actually perverts the truth because it takes male and female to reveal Him. We know that two are better than one, as Scripture says. We know that’s true. But two are better than one only if they are united. Two are less than one if they are divided. It is in the uniqueness of diversity that He is revealed. Neither gender alone can fully reveal Him. Neither can one race.
What this spirit of socialism does—and that’s what I’m going to call it, rampant in the earth—is to erase the borders of countries, borders between identities—man and woman, borders of sexuality. The enemy works to erase these borders so we all become the same among the races. There is not one race better than another. That’s right. In an effort to make equality a reality, there is this idea that says, «Well, we’re all the same.» We’re not all the same. What makes humanity beautiful is the uniqueness and individuality of races that must be discovered and celebrated. That’s what makes the beauty of diversity work as a fuller picture of what the Father is like. This nonsense of erasing borders between countries, genders—it’s a demonic push to erase the absolutes in our way of thinking. Socialism destroys the identity of the individual, and it’s something God fights for. Yes.
All right, I feel better now. Now, let’s get back to the Bible here. It’s very significant that God made man and woman fully qualified to complete in the other what was missing. It’s in their honor of one another that unity is experienced. Together, there is something prophesied into the earth about Jesus’s love for His church and His church’s love for Him. Yes. That’s Scripture.
When you were born again, Jesus didn’t take a broken person and mend them. He took a broken person and recreated them. You are not a sinner with the blood of Jesus as a band-aid. Come on. You were a sinner who was recreated in the image of God. Jesus is the only one who could, in and of Himself, completely reveal the nature of the Father. It says in Hebrews 1:3 that He is the exact image of the Father’s nature. Here’s this concept of image again—you were made in His image.
A friend of mine recently shared a concept that has provoked some good thoughts in me. A king who rules over multiple nations will reside in one, but he creates images, statues, to place in the other countries so that the people know: number one, they have a king; and number two, they see what he looks like. That’s right. That’s right. When God created you in His image, He planted you in a nation where He doesn’t reside—to illustrate to all humanity that they have a King and this is what He looks like.
Now, that only works when we live in the expression of the lordship of Jesus. Outside of the lordship of Jesus, it’s perversion. It’s a distortion—a better word. It’s a distorted message that is given. Religion works hard to destroy hope, to destroy identity. By religion, I mean routine without relationship. You can have all the right philosophies, but anger and resentment—the stuff that torments—is rampant in the life of a religious person. It works to destroy identity as much as socialism does.
Jesus created us as image-bearers who are planted in the earth to represent Him. Here’s the problem: most of us have become way too addicted to our own opinions. «Well, I have a right to my own opinion.» Do you want to use your rights, or do you want to find the mind of Christ? Because the unrenewed mind is at war with God. The fight for your own opinion is to choose a war against God.
Years ago, something happened in a city with another church. People would come and ask me, «What do you think about it?» I’d say, «No one can make me have an opinion.» For me to have an opinion means I’d have to think about it, and that situation isn’t worthy of my attention. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have biblically based opinions. But does this make sense to you? You can have an opinion based on facts but not based on truth.
I was in another situation some years ago with a group of about 10 to 15 leaders—all men. Unfortunately, we were missing a huge part of what we needed. However, they were really good, honestly, integrous people all sharing facts about another ministry in the area. We were trying to decide what kind of actions we should take. I remember sitting, hearing all the facts from really integra people whom I respected, but something wasn’t settled in my heart. It just didn’t feel right. I didn’t feel we were coming into truth. We had accurate facts. There wasn’t a liar or deceptive person in the group, but somehow we hadn’t arrived at the truth.
So, I said in this meeting, «Give me a month. Just give me a month. Let’s table it.» I went and called this particular ministry, sat down with the leaders—not to correct them or advise them, just to be a friend. One of the most important things I ever learned from my dad, which I’m still learning, is that when you wash the feet of another person, you find out why they walk the way they do.
We had great detail on how these people walked, but nobody took the time to find out why they walked that way. I was in a conference with about 3,000 to 4,000 people, and during this wonderful time of worship, there was a lady not too far from me singing her own notes, her own words—basically, her own song. It really stood out when a soprano does that; it’s noticeable. I was standing there trying to worship, making sure I didn’t become critical. I’ve been down this road before and I know what it’s like to be stupid. So, I was just trying: Bill, don’t be stupid. Don’t be stupid.
Finally, worship came to an end, and Heidi Baker scooted down close to me. She said, «Wasn’t that beautiful?» I said, «Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, it was beautiful.» Then she said, «Yeah, this lady has been a prostitute for 35 years. Now she’s free.» I thought, «Oh goodness, give her the mic! She can sing any way she wants—she is free! And she’s letting everybody on the planet know she is free.»
The difference between me and Heidi is that I had facts; she washed feet. When she washed feet, she found the story. It wasn’t just something to tolerate; that story was something worth celebrating. Often, we become offended by things in people or movements when all we have are facts and we don’t know how they got to that place.
Many are harshly criticized regarding what’s called the prosperity gospel, simply because people have never learned how they came into that truth. It’s not about building empires or kingdoms, right? It’s about obeying the Lord in every part of life. When you realize the story, when you find out how they got to where they are and why they walk the way they do, you just walk away saying, «Jesus, you’re so kind, so merciful, so good.» That’s the point: when Jesus helped the woman caught in adultery, revealing the Father, that was His sole assignment—to reveal the Father to a planet full of orphans.
The Old Testament didn’t accomplish that because it wasn’t its purpose; Jesus had that purpose. He revealed the Father in His actions and words. He only did what He saw the Father do and said what He heard the Father say. He illustrated, in a sense, what lordship would look like for us. Do you want your own opinion or the mind of Christ?
I believe in analytical thinking, getting counsel, and gaining input. However, often, we end up with ideas and thoughts that come from human values but not from the Word of the Lord. When Jesus ministered to the woman caught in adultery, He did what nobody in that crowd—including the disciples—expected. He did what any father in this room would do for his own daughter caught in such a mess. He showed compassion, kindness, and reset her purpose and destiny. Jesus revealed the Father.
You and I are the image-bearers of God. Without the lordship experience, I will only misrepresent that image. I will do my best, but it will either be harsh or too lenient. It won’t be from Christ. However, in the lordship of Jesus, moving in the Holy Spirit out of obedience, our lives become an offering—a sacrifice. In that place, it can be said we bear the image of God, reminding our nations, cities, neighborhoods, and families that we have a King and this is what He looks like.
There’s a verse in Brian Simmons' Passion Translation in Psalm 8 about the dominion of man that I love so much. Let me read you a couple of verses. It says, «Yet what honor—excuse me, it’s verses 4 through 8, I think—why would you bother with puny mortal men or care about human beings? Yet what honor you have given to men, created only a little lower than Elohim—crowning them with glory and magnificence. You have delegated to them rulership over all you have made, and with everything under their authority, placing the earth itself under the feet of your image-bearers.»
Imagine a king placing a statue in another country, and then you find out that statue is you! You are there to remind that nation they have a King, and this is what He looks like. This is the call of the gospel. That’s why He had to start over by making us a new creation.
In 2 Corinthians 5, we read that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Since those six days of creation in Genesis 1, whether each day was a 24-hour period or a thousand years, I could care less—all I know is it happened, and He was in charge. Since those six days of creation, nothing new was created until people were born again. Then He created you, created me as a new race of people—something that has never existed before.
Jesus wasn’t the first person raised from the dead, but He was the first one born from the dead, the first of a new race—the first of a new creation. One of the best things that could ever happen to us is to discover how the new creation thinks. The way you perceive yourself, the way you view what’s possible, your capacity, your design—all those things play heavily into what flows from your life and from mine.
In Romans 6, after illustrating how a person in Christ actually becomes dead to sin—the picture of water baptism as a watery grave—the context is that Jesus died. Do you believe it? Yes, I do. He says, «In the same way, think of yourself as dead to sin.» It’s not make-believe; it’s not mental gymnastics. It’s not trying to memorize certain creeds to become better people. It’s realizing a truth superior to all the facts the enemy throws at you—a truth that releases you and me into the God-given new identity.
He says, «If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things have become new.» A few verses later, it says this: «For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.» Now think through this with me. Jesus knew no sin. God made Jesus to become sin—not a sinner but actually to become the entity of sin itself.
You see the effects of a life of sin on one person, how it destroys health, creates our own mental anguish. Now multiply that by all the billions of people that have lived throughout time. Take all of that and put it on one person, Jesus. You’ll find out why He died and how He died. The weight of such an enormous burden was released upon Him, and He became sin.
But here’s the more mind-boggling truth to me: we could become the righteousness of God. He didn’t say so that we could just become righteous. Yeah, come on! And I don’t understand this. He didn’t say, «so that we could become righteous.» That would have been good enough; instead, He said we can become the righteousness of God. Now, that is a transformation! Not just changed from a sinner to one who is not guilty, but changed from a sinner exhibiting death in every part of life to being the righteousness of God that promotes life at every turn of the road!
Yes. When the human body is an illustration of lordship in this sense, the Bible calls us members of the body of Christ. The picture is of the head and the body. Now, just to let you know, I was the head of my home; my wife was the neck. Just saying. It worked great!
So, Christ is the head, and we are the body—individual members of the body. Now, this body, when it’s all connected and healthy, illustrates or reveals something that is absolute divine design. But let’s say the arm is dislocated. It’s still attached to the body, but I can’t lift anything. There’s pain, there’s anguish. It doesn’t function. It’s alive but doesn’t function. That’s you and me—doing things outside of the lordship of Jesus. Help us!
It doesn’t represent a body that anyone out there would recognize as prophesying the nature of this wonderful Father. If you can imagine every joint, every bone being out of joint, that often represents the body of Christ functioning outside of the lordship of Jesus, trying to fulfill religious routines and selfish desires. You see a distorted, perverted, crippled body, and that’s what’s supposed to be representing the Father. Are you getting this?
The lordship of Jesus—I want to explore in thought, analyze, consider. But I only want conclusions based on Scripture and what the Holy Spirit highlights in that moment and season. Going to this other ministry in town, literally just washing their feet, finding out who they are, what they do, and why they are in that ministry. We had a wonderful time, and when I was through, they wanted to make everything right that was wrong. I never asked them to do any of it.
What happened when Jesus was walking down the street and saw a guy in a tree? It was Zakius, the tax collector. Everyone hated him; he was like the mafia in that region—the chief tax collector who stole from everybody. Jesus said, «I want to come to your house,» and everybody was outraged.
See, the way the kingdom functions doesn’t go with human popularity. It doesn’t flow with what everyone celebrates. It illustrates a kingdom that is often best displayed in the most difficult situations. It’s forgiving the unforgivable. Help us! It’s serving the person who least deserves it. It’s celebrating.
So, Jesus said, «I want to come to your house to eat.» As they were walking, Zakius started confessing his sin and promising to make restitution for everything he stole. Jesus never once talked to him about it. What did He do? He washed his feet. How? He honored the most rejected and despised citizen of that city. That honor did something to Zakius where he found himself wanting to make things right. Yes, He washed his feet.
We were not called to the ordinary. Talk to us! We’re not called to be normal. We’re not designed to blend in. That doesn’t mean we become obnoxious and draw attention because that’s the opposite. We must show kindness and compassion in the worst situations.
The woman caught in adultery—showing kindness in that situation absolutely provoked a cultural shift in the minds of everybody involved. It became something they could never forget. It was so profound it got put in the book. Yes! There was a revelation of a Father through an action nobody expected.
And I think no one supported it until it was done. It’s about kindness to the undeserving, compassion for a person in a broken situation. You ever hug somebody who had a sunburn? They go, «Oh!» You don’t say, «You should have put on sunscreen!» Instead, you say, «I’m so sorry.»
Though their action wasn’t wrong, it still caused pain. My concern is not that I look good in front of them; my concern is that they experience pain because of my action—even if my action was legitimate. Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir!
Kingdom functions differently than right and wrong. Yes! Kingdom doesn’t look at brokenness and say, «You’ve got to fix that.» It says there is an answer for that, and if He can use me to heal it, I pray He does. If He doesn’t, at least I’ll contribute so that someone else can come along and complete what began.
So good! Jesus was, the Scripture says in Hebrews 1, the exact representation of His nature—the complete image of the Father. No single person will ever carry that much. I actually need you so that together in unity we illustrate the Father. That goes for marriage and friendships. Yes!
I was in Canada this week and had a wonderful time. A new friend there told me a story of a guy he’s been ministering to for over 20 years. He’s been trying to get this guy saved, and he just wouldn’t budge. He would beg him and preach the gospel to him, but the guy remained unresponsive.
Here, not too long ago—within the last six months—he came to my friend and said, «Would you do me one favor?» They were really good friends, so my friend said, «Sure.» The guy said, «Would you watch four episodes of The Chosen?» He said, «You have to watch all four, you can’t just watch one or two.» The guy said, «Yeah, I’ll do that.»
So he watched it, and before he finished all four episodes, he asked my mutual friend, «Did Jesus really say this, or was it written in by the scriptwriters?» My friend said, «No, Jesus said that.»
It came up again. He asked, «When the woman was caught in adultery, is that actually what Jesus did?» When he saw in this show the Father through Jesus, he fell in love with Jesus and became a follower—because he saw a Jesus who went to the undeserving, the rejected, the despised, the broken, and served them. He fell radically in love with Jesus.
You are the image-bearer of God. God has positioned you right where He wants you because He wants everyone around you to see what the Father is like. So let’s make a joined effort to walk entirely in the lordship of Jesus—in word and action—so those we think are resistant to the gospel will see a Savior who stoops to the widow woman caught in adultery and recognizes the pain she endured, realizing they must give their lives to this one. That’s the call of God on this house.
So, Father, I pray for an increased awareness of what it is to be a new creation. It actually says we are a new creation. It says we are a royal priesthood—royalty that represents God before people and people before God. Father, let that profound assignment permeate our hearts, driving us to an absolute dependency on You so that everyone around us would proclaim, «Jesus Christ is their Lord.»
I know, given how many people are in the room, there’s a good chance folks are here who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. You may not know what it means to be born again, which is the term the Bible uses for being changed and transformed from the inside out—becoming that new creation.
If there’s anyone here who would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know what it means to have peace with God; until I know what it means to be reconciled to God; until I know what it means to be forgiven,» then I want you to raise a hand where you are, acknowledging that you want to be right with God before you leave today. Put your hand up if that’s you. Do it quickly. I’m going to take just a moment for this. And those who are online, do the same—put it in the chat box, and one of the pastors or leaders will come and minister to you.
Is there anyone at all, right over here? Your hand is raised for that reason? Yes. All right. Anyone else? Yeah. All right. I want you to stand with me; we need to get this banner. Anyone who wants to come to know Jesus today, this individual over here—I encourage you, please come down. We have people here we know and love and trust who want to talk with you and pray for you. So, please come right over here to my left (your right), where this little banner is. There are people specific to pray for you.