Hebrews 6:4-5 says, “Who have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the works of power of the coming age.” In this verse we can clearly see that the believers, after tasting the heavenly gift and becoming partakers of the Holy Spirit, have tasted two categories of things: the good word of God and the works of power of the coming age. In Hebrews the word of God is in two categories. “The good word” mentioned in 6:5 is “the word of the beginning of Christ” (6:1). The word of righteousness (5:13), however, embodies the deeper truth of God’s justice and righteousness in His dispensational and governmental dealings with His people. In the entire book of Hebrews, the good word refers to Christ in His earthly ministry, including His incarnation, His human living, His crucifixion, and His resurrection; and the word of righteousness refers to Christ in His heavenly ministry, including His ascension, His exaltation, and all His attainments and obtainments in His exaltation. The purpose of the book of Hebrews was to help the Hebrew believers to go on from the good word to the word of righteousness, to go on from the enjoyment of Christ in His earthly ministry to the enjoyment of Christ in His heavenly ministry; thus, to enjoy the all-inclusive, all-embracing Christ.
The book of Hebrews stresses the heavenly Christ in the heavens (1:3). The word of righteousness concerning such a Christ is for the mature ones (5:13-14). This kind of word is considered as solid food, but the good word, which is considered as milk, is for the children. Both the milk and the solid food refer to the all-inclusive Christ. Our primary enjoyment that we have in the all-inclusive Christ in the New Testament age is as the milk and as the solid food. In the Lord’s recovery the main thing is to recover the lost enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ. We enjoy Him in His earthly ministry, and we also enjoy Him in His heavenly ministry—we enjoy Him as the all-inclusive Christ in His all-inclusive Person and in His all-inclusive work. We see Him in His earthly work, and we see Him also in His heavenly work. This is the divine enjoyment, the spiritual enjoyment, the main enjoyment, and the top enjoyment of the New Testament age.
For God to carry out His New Testament economy, there is also the need of the miraculous works, miracles, such as healing the diseases, casting out the demons, swallowing up the death poison, controlling the Devil, which is signified in the picking up of the serpents, and speaking in tongues to diminish the differences, the separations, and the divisions of mankind. These are miraculous, supernatural things which will be fully manifested in the coming millennium, the age to come. Isaiah 11 and 65 and Revelation 20 give us a clear view of the coming millennium. During those one thousand years, the people living on this earth will not be saved in the regeneration way, but they will all be restored back to their original, God-created condition.
Due to the fall of man, the entire creation became old. Everything began to go down hill, to decay, and sickness and death came in. Due to the fall, the demons began to work among mankind, and all the dividing languages came in at Babel. The entire human race was damaged and ruined, and the entire old creation became corrupted. The principle of the old creation and the fallen human race is to go down, to be decayed, to be ruined, to be corrupted, and to be sick and to die. All the bad things are prevailing. When the millennium comes, however, everything will be restored. Diseases will be healed, death will be swallowed up, demons will be dealt with, Satan will be bound, and the dividing languages will be taken away. This will be an age of restoration, an age of restitution, as prophesied by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 19:28. Acts 3:21 also refers to this time of restoration. The believers, after being baptized in the Spirit of power into a new realm, are ushered, with the power and authority of the exalted Head, into the foretaste of this coming restoration, so we can cast out demons, speak new tongues, pick up serpents, defeat the death poison, and heal diseases. This is revealed in Mark 16:15-20. Today in the church life we can have such a foretaste. Satan and the demons have no ground among us, and the language barrier is no longer a problem. It has been overcome by all speaking the same word of Christ—the word concerning Christ. Also, we are being healed, and the death poison is being removed. All the other peoples are still remaining in the old age, but we, the believers, who are genuinely one with the exalted Christ, have been brought into a foretaste of the coming age. This kind of taste of the power of the coming age, however, is secondary to the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ, which is the believers’ primary enjoyment in the New Testament age.