Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 6:5

"and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come," — Hebrews 6:5 (ASV)

And have tasted the good word of God. This means either the doctrines which He teaches, which are good or pleasant to the soul, or the word of God which is connected with good, that is, which promises good. The former seems to be the correct meaning—that the word of God, or the truth which He taught, was itself a good.

It was that which the soul desired, and in which it found comfort and peace. (Psalms 141:6). The meaning here is that they had experienced the excellence of the truth of God; they had seen and enjoyed its beauty. This is language which cannot be applied to an unrepentant sinner.

An unrepentant sinner has no relish for the truth of God, sees no beauty in it, and derives no comfort from it. It is only the true Christian who has pleasure in its contemplation and who can be said to "taste" and enjoy it. This language describes a state of mind of which every sincere Christian is conscious. It is that of pleasure in the word of God.

He loves the Bible; he loves the truth of God that is preached. He sees an exquisite beauty in that truth. It is not merely in its poetry, in its sublimity, or in its argument; but he now has a taste or relish for the truth itself, which he did not have before his conversion. .

Previously, he might have admired the Bible for its beauty of language or for its poetry; he might have been interested in preaching for its eloquence or power of argument; but now his love is for the truth. There is no book that he so much delights in as the Bible, and no pleasure is so pure as that which he has in contemplating the truth. (Joshua 23:16).

And the powers of the world to come. Or of the "coming age." "The age to come" was a phrase in common use among the Hebrews to denote the future dispensation, the times of the Messiah. The same idea was expressed by the phrases "the last times," "the end of the world," etc., which are of so frequent occurrence in the Scriptures. They all denoted an age which was to succeed the old dispensation: the time of the Messiah, or the period in which the affairs of the world would be wound up. (See Barnes on Isaiah 2:2).

Here it evidently refers to that period. The meaning is that they had participated in the peculiar blessings to be expected in that dispensation—namely, in the clear views of the way of salvation and the influences of the Holy Spirit on the soul.

The word "powers" here implies that in that time there would be some extraordinary manifestation of the power of God. An unusual energy would be put forth to save people, particularly as shown by the agency of the Holy Spirit on the heart.

Of this "power," the apostle here says, those of whom he spoke had partaken. They had been brought under the awakening and renewing energy which God put forth under the Messiah in saving the soul. They had experienced the promised blessings of the new and last dispensation, and the language here is such as appropriately describes Christians, and indeed can be applicable to no other.

It may be remarked concerning the various expressions used here (Hebrews 6:4–5):

1. That they are such as properly denote a renewed state. They obviously describe the condition of a Christian; and though it may not be certain that any one of them, if taken by itself, would prove that the person to whom it was applied was truly converted, yet, taken together, it is clear that they are designed to describe such a state. If they are not, it would be difficult to find any language which would be properly descriptive of the character of a sincere Christian. I regard the description here, therefore, as that which is clearly designed to denote the state of those who were born again and were the true children of God; and it seems plain to me that no other interpretation would have ever been thought of if this view had not seemed to conflict with the doctrine of the "perseverance of the saints."
2. There is a regular gradation here from the first elements of piety in the soul to its highest developments; and, whether the apostle so designed it or not, the language describes the successive steps by which a true Christian advances to the highest stage of Christian experience. The mind is:
   1. Enlightened; then
   2. Tastes the gift of heaven, or has some experience of it; then
   3. It is made to partake of the influences of the Holy Ghost; then
   4. There is experience of the excellence and loveliness of the word of God; and
   5. Finally, there is a participation of the full "powers" of the new dispensation—of the extraordinary energy which God puts forth in the gospel to sanctify and save the soul.

"To come" — "The mighty works of that age that is to come."