When did God repent?

How did God speak in the Old Testament? #

In the book of Hebrews there is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It says:

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power… (NASB Hebrews 1:1-3)

Before Christ came, as we read, God spoke many things through various images and in various ways. The message of God, His will, His character, and the nature of who He is, was carried by prophets. The prophets were men from different backgrounds - kings, priests, Levites, shepherds, etc.

Reading their prophecies, reading their records of events, what God did, what He said, we gain some understanding of God and His character.

When God revealed some facet of His character, of His nature, He revealed Himself to them by some name. In the Old Testament we read of people calling God by various names, such as:

• El Shaddai – God Almighty. This was the most common name that people of Israel referred to God with (Genesis 17:1).
• Sabaoth – Lord of Hosts (1 Samuel 1:3).
• Jehovah-Jireh – the LORD will Provide (Genesis 22:14).
• Jehovah-Nissi – the LORD is my Banner (Exodus 17:15).
• Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:9).
• etc.

Moses and the Torah #

Usually, when a person received a revelation about God, that understanding of God’s character made a certain imprint on his life. One then became a bearer of that revelation.

These names, which reflected various character traits of God, were really more titles or descriptive names. When God introduced Himself to one of the people, He either called Himself God Almighty or referred to Himself as the God of their ancestors. For example, God told Isaac that He was the God of Abraham, his father (Genesis 26:24). God told Jacob that He was the God of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 28:13). And God spoke to Jacob’s sons as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 3:6).

One day, as Jacob wrestled with God, he asked Him: *“What is your name? “But God did not reveal His name to him, but said:

…“Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. (NASB Genesis 32:29)

Nevertheless, in the book of Exodus, we find a story in which God actually reveals His name, which became the main name of God for all the Jews in the Bible. That name is YAHWEH – “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:16).

This is a very interesting story. We find it in Exodus chapter 3. God called to Moses from the burning bush:

… ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. (NASB Exodus 3:6)

God introduced Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. But Moses wanted to know more about the God who was going to send him back to Egypt to lead the Jews out of slavery. As we read later in the story:

Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations. (NASB Exodus 3:13-15)

So, God told Moses that His name was I AM, and that this Name was the memorial-name for all generations. It was this name that God told the Jews not to take in vain:

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. (NASB Exodus 20:7)

I want you to see the connection between the fact that the person to whom God revealed His name, also brought the revelation of the way of life and worship (which was the Torah).

Thus, the name YAHWEH and TORAH given by God became the final revelation that defined the way of life for the sons of Jacob and defined their worship of God in the Old Testament.

Jesus Christ Is Like Moses #

So, as we read in the beginning, in the last days, as it says in Hebrews 1:1-3, God spoke through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ brought a new revelation about God and gave new commandments concerning life and worship.

…and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (NASB John 17:26)

This is a very important fact that Jesus revealed God’s new name to the Jews. In doing so, He fulfilled the prophecy of Moses when he told the people of Israel:

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. (NASB Deuteronomy 18:15)

So, what was the similarity of Jesus Christ to Moses? The resemblance was in two major things.

1. Jesus also has revealed God’s name.
2. Like Moses, Jesus also has brought a law — His teachings.

After Moses, there was no one else who brought a revelation of the name of God to the people. The only one who brought this level of revelation was the Lord Jesus Christ.

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. (NASB John 1:17)

Thus, the apostle John proclaimed that henceforth the guidance for living and serving God would be the grace and the truth that we find in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

In another passage we read how Jesus himself says that from that day on, the way of living and of worship to God would be completely different:

‘Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you {people} say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship’. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’ (NASB John 4:20-24)

So Moses brought the revelation that God is Yahweh, and he brought the Torah – the Law. And Jesus Christ brought the revelation of the new name of God and also revealed grace and truth.

The New Name #

So, what is the name of God that Jesus Christ has revealed to us? It is the name “Father” or “Abba” (Hebrew).

Most Christians miss this. The name “Father “ appears so often in the New Testament that we haven’t even noticed it’s significance, and just took it for granted. But this is the Name of God that Jesus revealed to us!

God the Father revealed Himself in all of His fullness through Jesus Christ. As it is written that in Jesus Christ “all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (NASB Colossians 2:9).

Confusion #

But many people get confused in their minds when they try to compare the God they see in the Old Testament with the God they see in the New Testament.

The God of the Old Testament seems very cruel, strict, punishing for the slightest mistakes. The God of the New Testament seems loving, gracious, and forgiving even great sins.

This is why many people often have a dissonance in their understanding of God, — a conflict: What is wrong with the God of the Old Testament? I have once personally heard someone say in a conversation: “I even began to think that in the New Testament God repented, that He was so strict and began to behave differently with people.“😆

When did God repent?!

What is the Old Testament About? #

The first thing to understand about the Old Testament is that it gives us an understanding of men’s sinfulness and of the fact that men themselves cannot solve the problem of sin.

For the Law, since it has {only} a shadow of the good things to come {and} not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those {sacrifices} there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, ‘SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME’ (NASB Hebrews 10:1-5)

That is, the offerings constantly reminded the Jews of their sins. Also in Romans Paul wrote:

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law {comes} the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the Law {the} righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even {the} righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction… (NASB Romans 3:19-23)

So we see that the whole system of sacrifices described in Torah (the Law) constantly communicated to the man the idea that they were sinful.

The Tutor #

What else does the New Testament say about the Law?

But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor {to lead us} to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (NASB Galatians 3:23-26)

Among the wealthy Greeks and Romans there were special slaves whose duties included looking after the boys who belonged to these upper-class families. They taught these children morals and proper behavior. And until the boys grew up and reached the adulthood, they were not allowed to leave the house without the presence of their tutor.

As children of free families, they essentially did not have the freedom until they came to the age, being constantly under the prohibitions and restrictions of this slave, the tutor.

The apostle Paul compares Torah (the Law of Moses) to the tutor whose task was to set boundaries, to teach morals, until the people of Israel reached their “adulthood,” or as the New Testament calls that age – the fullness of time. Paul goes on to say that for the mankind the adulthood came when the Son of God became man and brought the revelation of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. “Now,” says Paul, “…we are no longer under the [leadership] of the tutor. For all of you are sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

In the next chapter, the apostle Paul adds to this thought:

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (NASB Galatians 4:1-5)

Praise God, we are no longer slaves, but the children of God, who have been adopted by Him!

Is it possible to know the fullness of God’s character and nature through the Old Testament’s revelation? #

No, we through the Old Testament we understand the nature of God only in part. For the Old Testament does not give us a complete revelation of the fullness of God. In fact, if we read only the Old Testament without the New Testament, we can draw out many wrong conclusions about what God is like.

One can conclude from reading the Old Testament that God is oh-so-restrictive, that even the slightest mistake can lead to a very sad outcome.

Moses #

Do you remember Moses, who did not enter the promised land because he performed a miracle, but not the way God told him (Numbers chapter 20)? He performed a miracle, but in doing so, he made a teeny-weeny inaccuracy. So what, that instead of commanding the rock, he struck it with his staff! If we were in Moses’ place, any of us would consider that day a day of great victory of God, for we had driven water out of the rock! But such inaccuracy in carrying out God’s command cost Moses premature death. He led Israel for 40 years into the Promised Land, but he himself never entered because of the slightest mistake! Why was God so hard on Moses?

Saul #

Or, let’s take Saul for example. From the narrative in 1 Samuel chapter 13, one gets the sense that Saul only had to wait just a couple of hours more until Samuel the prophet came. But he didn’t wait, and made the sacrifice without Samuel. So why was the punishment so severe as to the point of taking the kingdom away from him? After all Saul brought the sacrifice to God! So why did God deal with him so harshly?

Job #

Let’s take a more complicated case – the Book of Job. When you read this book, you get a strange feeling in the first few chapters that God is reporting back to Satan. You may even get the feeling that God is justifying Himself before Satan.

One gets the impression that God is trying to prove to Satan that Job was blameless. He was trying to convince Satan that Job was God-fearing, and that he abstained from evil. But Satan says, Job is good as long as he is wealthy, has children and health… And so he says to God, “Take these away from him, and you’ll see what happens to him, you will see, whether he worships You”. And God said as if reluctantly, “OK, I give him to you, just don’t harm his soul. But otherwise you can do whatever you want with him.

At least this is the impression that I got when I read the passage for the first time.

It all sounds very strange, doesn’t it? What perception can we get about God if all we have is the narrative of the book of Job?

And then Job adds: “Shall we receive only good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10).

Who among us would want to receive something from God? It doesn’t matter what – good or evil! Are we willing to accept anything evil from Him, like sickness, loss, destruction – just like in the story of Job? After all, are we only going to get good things from God?! I hope you understand my sarcasm? 😄

Shadow #

So, what can we conclude about the character of God based on the Old Testament alone? It is written that the Law is only a shadow of the things to come, contours, a silhouette.

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. (KJV Hebrews 10:1)

Here Paul uses an allegory of the subject and its shadow to show the difference in the level of revelation about God that we get from reading the Old Testament compared to the revelation about God revealed in the New Testament.

When you look at the shadow of a man, you don’t see the face in the silhouette. You don’t see whether they are smiling at you, or whether they are angry. You cannot see whether their arms are outstretched toward you, or whether they are crossed over their chest and they are showing displeasure.

What is the Old Testament finally about? #

Does the Old Testament talk about angry God or does it talk about sinful man? How would you answer that question? And we need to answer this question, because our theology, our understanding of God’s character, depends on it.

One could say even more than that:

How do we relate to illnesses, to difficult situations in life? Do we thank God for the illnesses as something that He gave us, or should we pray for healing? What if God wants to teach us something through our illness?

But, if we believe that God teaches us through illness, then why do we turn to doctors and try to “skip out” of God’s lesson like an inveterate truant! We are supposed to stay in the lesson – endure and learn, aren’t we!

Friends, all this conflict and confusion goes on in our heads and souls because we don’t understand God’s intentions in the Old Testament, and we don’t understand the revelation of God in the New Testament.

Christ revealed to us the fullness of the Father #

…For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form… (NASB Colossians 2:9)

The word “bodily” appears only once in the Greek New Testament – in this passage. The word has a two-folded meaning:

Bodily:

– Corporeally, as in material incarnation.

– The substance, the nature.

So what is Paul trying to tell us in this passage of Scripture? I took the liberty to rephrase the passage:

Remember what Jesus said to Philip?

… Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and {yet} you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how {can} you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (NASB John 14:9)

How the revelation about God has changed in the New Testament #

Let’s look at how the revelation and understanding of God has changed in the New Testament compared to the Old Testament.

• Jesus revealed to us the new and the final name of God – the Father. He gave us the Holy Spirit, which is also called the the Spirit of Sonship. Because of this, the awareness of sonship came into our lives, that we are His sons and daughters. We have been accepted by God. God didn’t just remove the separation between us when the veil in the Temple was torn, He made us a part of His close family. Orphanhood will be leaving our lives more and more, as we more and more accept and experience this truth about God the Father.

• A clear dividing line has been drawn between God, which is light, and darkness, which is the devil.

  If we read the book of Job, from the context we see that the devil was the cause of evil that occurred in Job’s life, nevertheless, Job speaks out a very remarkable phrase, which was a reflection of Old Testament’s theology: everything that happens in a person’s life, good or bad comes from God God.

  But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. (NASB Job 2:10)

  But in the New Testament we see that God has differed His works from the works of the devil, just as He separated the light from darkness in the first chapter of Genesis.

  This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. (NASB 1 John 1:5)

• Respectively, diseases have been clearly categorized as the works of the devil. There is nothing of God in them.

  {You know of} Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and {how} He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. (NASB Acts 10:38)

  Healings that Jesus did were part the good works He was doing.

  And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?” (NASB Luke 13:16)

  Here again Jesus calls the sickness as a result of the Satan’s work in the woman’s life. In another passage is says:

  When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. {This was} to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES.” (NASB Matthew 8:16,17)

  Would God teach His children through diseases which His Son carried with His body on the cross? Of course not, because that defies all logic.

• As a result of God separating light from darkness, the works of God, from the works of Satan, accordingly, love, kindness, good intentions, and good plans for people are drawn into the image of God. God is a good and loving Father whose love surpasses that one of the best fathers among men. Moreover, compared to the love of God the Father, the most loving earthly father is evil towards his children.

  Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. (NASB James 1:17)

• When God is shown as the embodiment of love and goodness, the New Testament paints the devil as a liar, a thief, and a destroyer. All sickness, death, and loss are the works of the devil, which Jesus came to destroy.

  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have {it} abundantly. (NASB John 10:10)

• The New Testament also reveals the severity of God, but not as it was understood in the Old Testament. God is strict, but He is strict as a patient father who is interested in our advancement in His kingdom!

• The power of sanctification is also revealed in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, touching an unclean thing or a person made a ritually clean man unclean. In the New Testament, we see Jesus touching the lepers (who were considered unclean under the Law), and the lepers were cleansed. The unclean become clean!

This list, of course, is not complete. It is simply impossible to list everything within the scope of this article. But I think you got the idea.

God is smiling! #

The Law is a shadow of future blessings, a silhouette of the things to come. But the silhouette does not show us the face of God. When Jesus came, we finally saw what was behind the Law, what face was in that shadow.

Jesus Christ revealed the face of God to us! And it’s turned out that God was smiling at us! His arms are stretched toward us, just as a father stretches out his arms toward his beloved son or a daughter!

No one in the Old Testament could see the face of God and stay alive. Even Moses, who received the highest revelation of the Old Testament, was not allowed to see the face of God.

And He said, ‘I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.’ But He said, ‘You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!’ Then the LORD said, ‘Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand {there} on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.’ (NASB Exodus 33:19-23)

In the New Testament we have finally seen the face of God – the face of the Father, which turned out to be the face of Jesus Christ!

For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (NASB 2 Corinthians 4:6)

Moses did not see the face of God, but now we see the face of God when we look into the face of Jesus.

Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and {yet} you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how {can} you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (NASB John 14:8,9)

The apostle John writes about the time he spent with Jesus:

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life… (NASB 1 John 1:1)

In the Old Testament a man was forbidden to portray God. God told them in Deuteronomy:

So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, (NASB Deuteronomy 4:15,16)

I believe that now we can portray God. Because now we know what Jesus looks like! God came to us in the flesh, in a human body, so now we can portray Jesus Christ – not to worship the picture, of course, but for our inspiration and a reminder of the One who saved us. And it was God who took on a human form.

How should we read the Old Testament? #

Of course we need to read the Old Testament. The point of all this is not that we don’t need the writings of the Old Testament any more. After all, the first Christians had nothing but the Old Testament because the books of the New Testament had not yet been written, and they read it and were edified and grew spiritually.

But when we read the Old Testament, we should read it through the lens of the revelation that we have about God in the New Testament. God is our Father. We do not see God “from His back”, we now look strait in His face, because now know who He is and what His face is like!

The Apostle Paul put it this way about the importance of reading the Old Testament:

Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. (NASB 1 Corinthians 10:6)

Jesus Christ once said this to the scribes and Pharisees that the entire Old Testament speaks of Him:

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me… (NASB John 5:39)

I am very thankful that when I accepted Jesus Christ into my life, it was the New Testament that I given as a gift. I read the New Testament at least twice from cover to cover before I started reading the Old Testament. And when I began to read the Old Testament, it was easier for me to understand it in the right perspective.

Outpouring of the Holy Spirit in a church in Toronto #

In January 1994, under the leadership of John and Carol Arnott, the church then known as Toronto Airport Vineyard gathered at the end of the runway at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. The place quickly became known to the world as the place where God chose to meet His people when the Holy Spirit was poured out in an unprecedented way. As a result of this divine visitation, church members were sent to minister to thousands of people around the world. This revival, carrying the love of the Heavenly Father, became known as the “Toronto Blessing,” which had a tremendous global impact on hundreds of countries around the world.

The most important thing that happened during this outpouring was not even the fact that the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in such power that people could not stand on their feet. People were falling, laughing, crying, shaking as God sovereignly healed their hearts, delivered them and renewed them. The main fruit of this revival, as we can see it today, is that through that outpouring the awareness and acceptance of God the Father and of His Father heart have returned globally to the church. The main fruit of that outpouring of the Holy Spirit which went on for over 10 years on a daily basis, is that these people returned to their churches with a renewed understanding of who God really is – He is the Father, the Heavenly Daddy. And the powerful manifestation of the Holy Spirit accompanied this revelation because Jesus said:

Therefore, if you, being evil, are able to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. (Luke 11:13 NRSV)

It was the answer of the Father on the people’s hunger and thurst to pour out His Holy Spirit. And from the Scriptures we know, that it is by the Holy Spirit that God’s love is poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5). So this is why His presence was so strong (and still is today) there in Toronto.

This revelation cannot be outgrown! When people say it is primitive and that they have moved on, I have a reasonable question: Where exactly have you moved on?

We need to accept, grow stronger and deeper in this revelation that God is our Father, and we don’t have the length of our lives here to completely grasp the fullness of this truth.

The challenge #

The challenge before us today is how we can weave this understanding of God the Father into everything we do in our lives: into how we serve Him, how we work, how we build our families. Do we serve Him as sons, or do we serve him as slaves who don’t know that everything in their Father’s house already belongs to them? How do we preach, how do we build our ministries? Our whole life should be saturated with this understanding of the nature of God that has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

So what do we do when we have situations in life that cause us to question the truth about God as a loving Father? It is a very difficult question, especially today with everything that is happening in this world. But what I do know is that we cannot allow our negative experience to distort the revelation of God the Father that has been given to us.

The greatest revelation of who a man is #

Jesus is one hundred percent God. And He considered Himself as such. But He is also one hundred percent a man. And as a man, Jesus called Himself the Son.

All creation collectively “groans” for one thing only – when will the sons and daughters of God be manifest in this world.

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. (NASB Romans 8:19)

A prayer #

I love the following prayer and have prayed it myself for many years and still continue to do so today. God wants to fill us with His fullness, just as Jesus was filled with the fullness of God the Father to reveal it to the world when He was on earth. But God’s fullness in our lives depends on our personal and collective awareness and acceptance of the Father’s love that He revealed to us.

Read this prayer carefully and ponder on what exactly the Apostle Paul is praying here. And then make this prayer your own…

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; {and} that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him {be} the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (NASB Ephesians 3:14-21)