Read Hebrews 6:4, 5. What were believers given in Christ while they were faithful to Him?

 To have been “enlightened” means to have experienced conversion (Heb. 10:32). It refers to those who have turned from the “darkness” of the power of Satan to the “light” of God (Acts 26:17, 18). It implies deliverance from sin (Eph. 5:11) and ignorance (1 Thess. 5:4, 5). The verbal form here suggests that this enlightening is an act of God achieved through Jesus, “the brightness of His glory” (Heb. 1:3, NKJV).

 To “have tasted the heavenly gift” and “have become partakers of the Holy Spirit” (NKJV) are synonymous expressions. The “gift” of God may refer to His grace (Rom. 5:15) or to the Holy Spirit, through which God imparts that grace (Acts 2:38). Those who have “tasted” the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39, 1 Cor. 12:13) have experienced the “grace” of God, which includes the power to fulfill His will (Gal. 5:22, 23).

 To taste “the goodness of the word of God” (Heb. 6:5, ESV) is to experience personally the truth of the gospel (1 Pet. 2:2, 3). “The powers of the age to come” refers to the miracles God will perform for believers in the future: resurrection (John 5:28, 29), transformation of our bodies, and eternal life. Believers, however, are beginning to “taste” them in the present. They have experienced a spiritual resurrection (Col. 2:12, 13), a renewed mind (Rom. 12:2), and eternal life in Christ (John 5:24).

 Paul probably has in mind the wilderness generation, who experienced the grace of God and His salvation. The wilderness generation was “enlightened” by the pillar of fire (Neh. 9:12, 19; Ps. 105:39), enjoyed the heavenly gift of manna (Exod. 16:15), experienced the Holy Spirit (Neh. 9:20), tasted the “good word of God” (Josh. 21:45), and “the powers of the age to come” in the “wonders and signs” performed in their deliverance from Egypt (Acts 7:36). Paul suggests, however, that just as the wilderness generation apostatized from God, despite those evidences (Num. 14:1-35), the audience of Hebrews was in danger of doing the same, despite all the evidences of God’s favor that they had enjoyed.