through God’s utterance does the Spirit come to and dwell in human hearts. And, finally, they had tasted the “powers of the coming age.” The Word with its power had worked effects in their hearts that would endure into eternity. Paul said it well in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “ ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” So it is believers of whom the author sadly speaks, but of believers who “fall away.”