As the Creator, Christ the Son will remain forever. Although all the created things will change sooner or later, He will last forever, remaining the same. Hebrews 1:11-12 says, “They will perish, but You remain perpetually; and they all will become old like a garment, and like a mantle You will roll them up; like a garment they will also be changed; but You are the same, and Your years will not fail.”
Verses 10 through 12 reveal that Christ will be superior to the angels in eternity. Verse 10 says, “You in the beginning, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands.” This refers to His creation. Verses 11 and 12 reveal that the old creation will be terminated, that the new heaven and new earth will be ushered in, and that Christ will be the everlasting One in eternity. As the Creator and the everlasting One, He is superior to the angels, His creatures.
Verse 3 speaks of Christ the Son “upholding and bearing all things by the word of His power.” This verse indicates that Christ is not only the Creator of all things in the universe but also the Upholder of all things by the word of His power. All things subsist together under His powerful upholding (Col. 1:17).
After creating all things, the Son became the Upholder (Heb. 1:3). The earth is suspended in the air. There are no columns supporting it. After Christ created the earth, He began to uphold it. He upholds it by the word of His power. Christ the Son upholds the universe very easily. He does not do anything—He just speaks. He upholds all things by the word of His power.
In Hebrews 11:3 we are told that the universe was framed by the word of God, and in 1:3 we see that the universe is upheld by the word of His power. The Son is not only the Creator, but He is also the Upholder. He created and upholds the universe by His word.
The Greek word translated “word” in verse 3 denotes the instant word. The Son upholds and bears all things not by His work but by His instant word, the word of His power. In creation all things came into being through Him as the Word (John 1:1-3). The universe has been framed by the word of God (Heb. 11:3): “He spoke, and it was; / He commanded, and it stood” (Psa. 33:9). In salvation we are saved through His word (John 5:24; Rom. 10:8, 17). It is through His word that His authority with power is exercised (Matt. 8:8-9). It is by His word that His healing power is realized (John 4:50-51). God speaks in the Son, and the Son upholds and bears all things by His word. It is altogether a matter of speaking. When the Lord speaks, everything is in order.
Hebrews 1:2 tells us that Christ the Son is the appointed Heir of all things. This means that Christ is the legal Heir, inheriting all things in God’s economy. Since Christ is not only the Son of God but also the Heir of God, all that God the Father is and has is His possession (John 16:15). In the past the Son was the Creator (Heb. 1:2, 10; John 1:3; Col. 1:16; 1 Cor. 8:6); in the present He is the Upholder of all things and the One who bears all things (Heb. 1:3); in the future He will be the Heir, inheriting all things (cf. Rom. 11:36). Since Christ created all things, He will inherit what He created. This is the relationship between Christ and creation.
Christ, as typified by Isaac, the son of Abraham, will inherit the earth (Psa. 2:8), the kingdom (Dan. 7:13-14), the throne (Luke 1:32), and all things (Matt. 11:27). Since He is not only the Son of God but also the legal Heir of God, all that God the Father is and has is for His possession (John 16:15).
We need to also see how Christ is related to the Godhead. Hebrews 1:3 speaks of Christ the Son as the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of His substance. God’s glory is God expressed, and God’s substance is that which exists intrinsically in His divine being. In the Godhead, Christ is both the effulgence of the expressed God and the image of God’s inner being.
The effulgence of God’s glory is like the shining or the brightness of the light of the sun. The Son is the shining, the brightness, of the Father’s glory. This refers to God’s glory. Separating the effulgence from the glory may be likened to separating the shining of the sun from the rays of the sun. The shining cannot be separated from the rays, for they are one. Likewise, we should never consider the Son as separate from God. The Son is the expression of God Himself; Christ the Son is God expressed. He is nothing less than God; He is God Himself.
Our Christ is God coming to us. He is our God reaching us. Just as the sun can reach us by the shining of its rays, Christ, the Son of God, is God Himself reaching us and coming into us. We have a God who reaches us, a God who comes into us. This is our great salvation (2:3), and this is the Son of God.