Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus Christ is “upholding the universe by the word of his power.” This is a profound statement about Christ’s role in creation and His ongoing sovereignty over it. To uphold something means to maintain, sustain, or keep from falling. So this verse teaches that Jesus actively keeps the entirety of creation functioning and existing through His divine power.
There are several important implications we can draw from this verse about Jesus’ relationship to creation and what it means that He upholds it by His word:
Jesus is divine
The fact that Jesus upholds “all things” implies He possesses divine power and attributes. The continual existence of the universe and all that is in it depends directly on Jesus’ power. Only God possesses this kind of absolute sovereignty over creation. The verse connects Jesus’ upholding of creation to His powerful “word” or divine utterance. This parallels God’s creation of the world by His word in Genesis 1. By describing Jesus in this divine role, the author affirms Christ’s deity.
Jesus is creator
If Jesus currently sustains the universe by His word, this implies He created it by His word as well. John 1:1-3 and Colossians 1:16-17 teach Jesus’ role in the original creation of all things. Hebrews 1:3 complements these verses by teaching Jesus continues to uphold the creation He brought into being. He is not merely passive in His relationship to the world, but actively wills it to continue existing moment by moment.
Jesus governs providentially
Jesus does not only preserve the existence of the universe generally, but also governs it providentially. This means He directs all events and details according to His wise and holy will. Upholding all things includes upholding the continued operation of all that makes life possible and all individual creatures and objects. According to Scripture, not even a sparrow falls apart from the Father’s will (Matthew 10:29). Hebrews 1:3 teaches that Jesus exercises this detailed providence.
Jesus will bring final justice
Things continue as they are only because Jesus actively upholds them. His word could allow the universe to perish instantly if He so chose. This means the final consummation of justice has not yet come because of His patience. But when Jesus returns, He will subject the old sin-tainted order to destruction and create a new redeemed order (2 Peter 3:3-13). His word will no longer uphold this fallen world.
Jesus deserves worship
The Son’s supreme sovereignty over creation as its upholder means He deserves our worship and obedience. Since He is presently sustaining our lives, we owe Him our full allegiance. This was a key implication the author wanted his readers to embrace in response to this exalted description of Christ’s cosmic authority. Will we submit to Him who upholds all things by His word?
The Father shares glory with the Son
Within the larger context of Hebrews 1, this description of Christ upholds His superiority over the angels. The Father would not grant such supreme cosmic authority to any created being. By attributing this divine role to the Son, the author declares that the Son shares fully in the Father’s divine nature and intrinsic glory. This passage reflects a high Christology that sees Christ as God in the same sense as the Father.
Revelation about God’s power
This passage provides insight into the phenomenal power of God’s word. By mere utterance, Christ created and continues to uphold an entire universe teeming with life and complexity. This is meant to evoke awe and wonder at God’s infinite power and wisdom. It also testifies to the trustworthiness of God’s promises, since His word clearly has power to fulfill what He decrees. What God speaks, He has the power to bring about.
All things cohere in Christ
Paul teaches in Colossians 1:17 that in Christ “all things hold together.” Hebrews 1:3 similarly teaches that all things cohere and are sustained because of Christ’s continuous application of divine power. He is the integrating and unifying force at the molecular level of the universe. Science confirms the universe behaves in an orderly, integrated fashion. Hebrews testifies this is because the Son of God upholds its coherence.
Creation has purpose
Jesus did not merely create the universe and leave it to run on its own. His present active upholding of creation means He has ongoing purposes for it that He is working out according to His will. Creation has meaning because the Lord upholds it and governs it towards His sovereign ends. All of history is progressing under Christ’s direction as He providentially upholds all things.
Christ has authority to save
The Son who sustains all of creation with His word surely has authority to carry out the work of salvation. The writer of Hebrews emphasizes Christ’s cosmic authority to assure readers that He is able to fully save all who come to God through Him (Heb 7:25). Because He upholds all things, He has the sovereign power to secure the eternal redemption of His people.
Continuity of the old and new covenants
By describing the Son as upholding all things as He did at creation, the author connects Christ to the God of the old covenant. The Son in whom the Hebrews place their faith is the same divine Person who sovereignly ruled over their ancestors. This upholds the continuity between the old and new covenants and the unified redemption plan of God.
Jesus is near to Christians
Believers can take great comfort that Jesus who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” indwells them by His Spirit. The almighty Christ is not distant, but as close as our own breath. As we walk in dependence on the Spirit, we walk in the power of Him who upholds all things. This includes His upholding power in every trial we face (Isaiah 41:10).
Jesus is fully able to empathize with us
The book of Hebrews also emphasizes that Jesus lived as a man and experienced human sufferings and limitations. He can thus empathize with us in our weaknesses, having experienced the human condition Himself. Christ’s humanity, together with His divine power to uphold all things, allows Him to both identify with us and sustain us.
Believers participate in Christ’s rule
Jesus promised His followers they would participate in the reign He inaugurated during His earthly ministry (Revelation 3:21). Because Jesus upholds all creation, those united to Him rule creation with Him in a delegated sense. This is part of the believer’s glorious future hope, to exercise dominion under Christ when He finally consummates His kingdom.
Affirmation of Trinitarian distinctions
This verse implicitly distinguishes between the role of the Son, who upholds all things, and the role of the Father, to whom ultimate glory and honor are ascribed. This upholds a Trinitarian theology that distinguishes the persons of the Godhead even as it affirms their divine unity. The Son is not the Father, but they share fully in divine nature, glory, and power.
In summary, this compact verse about Christ upholding all things by His word powerfully affirms His divine nature and cosmic authority. It offers great theological depth and comfort to believers. Jesus, the sovereign Son and creator of all, who governs the universe by his word, indwells His people by His Spirit to sustain them. Fixing our eyes on the supreme exaltation of Christ is a key application of this verse.
Here are some key Scripture passages that connect to the teaching in Hebrews 1:3 on Jesus upholding all things:
John 1:1-3 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” This passage teaches Jesus’ (the Word’s) role in the creation of all things as the Divine Son. Just as Jesus created all things, He continues to uphold all things according to Hebrews 1:3.
Colossians 1:15-17 – “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” This important passage describes Jesus as creator, sustainer, and purpose for all things that exist.
Acts 17:28 – “For in him we live and move and have our being.” Paul teaches that our very existence and life depend continuously on the Lord Jesus. We live because He upholds us.
Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Because Jesus Christ is eternally the same in His divine nature and character, He can be relied on to continue upholding all things forever, just as He has from the beginning.
Psalm 75:3 – “When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars.” This psalm of Asaph expresses the sovereignty of God in upholding creation even when it shakes and totters.
Nehemiah 9:6 – “You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them.” This includes the affirmation that God continually preserves all He has created.
Hebrews 2:10 – “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” An explicit affirmation that all things exist for Jesus and by Him, connecting to Hebrews 1:3.
Isaiah 66:1-2 – “Thus says the Lord: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool…But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” God’s sovereign throne over all things should cause us to fearfully submit to His authority and Word.
Hebrews 11:3 – “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” A confession that God’s word alone created and upholds the entire universe out of nothing. This creative word is ultimately Christ’s.
Job 38-41 – These chapters emphasize God’s sovereign power in creating and governing all things, from the stars to the rain to the movements of the constellations. Jesus is the Lord who does all these things.
So in summary, Hebrews 1:3 succinctly encapsulates a major theme of Scripture: The eternal divine Son created all things, continues to uphold their existence by His powerful word, and does so in order to achieve His sovereign purposes for all of history. Recognition of Jesus Christ’s cosmic authority should evoke our worship and strengthen our confidence in His ability to fully save all who trust in Him.