(5) The powers of the world to come

These powers were the signs and wonders wrought by the early Christians through the Holy Ghost. The world to come, as we read in chap. 2:5, is the millennial world. Miracles of various kinds were wrought in those early days, and such miracles were a foretaste of the blessing of the time when Christ shall reign over this earth, and when the power of sin and evil shall be overwhelmed by His greater power.
It would be quite possible for such a professor, as we have kept before our minds, to receive in his own body the witness of the power of the Holy Ghost on earth. He might be healed of a disease: but the healing of his body would not be the work of the Holy Ghost in his soul. Many an one healed by the blessed Lord, returned not even to give Him thanks, and some proved themselves His bitter enemies. We must, in order to be saved, have Christ Himself for our Saviour.
The apostate crucified to himself the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. To forsake Christianity and return to Judaism, was acting as if Christ had not died once for all, and as if He had not risen again. Such a man, despite the blessings he had received, the rain which had fallen on him from heaven, was unprofitable soil. His soul only brought forth the fruits of earth’s curse, thorns and briars. He was lost beyond recovery. His awful doom was near. He was about to be cursed; it was not simply changing his religion. He had deliberately rejected Christ. His end was the eternal fire of eternal judgment.
What oftentimes makes this subject so trying to the unestablished believer, is the fact that he finds in himself, excepting the fifth, each characteristic which we have sought to explain. The possessor of Christianity has many things in common with the mere professor; but the professor has not Christ, and this makes all the difference. Whether we be babes, or of full age, Christ is our life, and therefore we shall “never perish.”
H. F. W.