Verse 2 says the Father made the worlds through the Son. It is not talking about planets, but about the divisions of time, history, and culture as they relate to God and to man, and whose sum is eternity. It means that the age before the Flood was created through the Word. This present age or world was also created through the One who became Christ. And there is a coming world or age that, in one sense, is already created—in the same sense that prophecy is history that is written in advance.
Isaiah 57:15 says that God inhabits eternity. Acts 15:18 says, “Known to God from eternity are all His works.” These verses really stretch our minds, but they also give us a glimpse of His incredible power and ability to do anything that He pleases. We are very limited, so it is impossible for us to grasp an existence like His.
Continuing on in verse 3, it describes Jesus Christ as “upholding all things by the word of His power.” It could also be rendered, “He sustains all things by His powerful word.” The Amplified Bible adds, “maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power.” It indicates an ongoing operation, meaning right this instant. Ever since the beginning, the Word has been upholding, maintaining, guiding, sustaining, and propelling all things.
The galaxies, the solar systems, the sun, the moon, the earth, the tectonic plates, the weather, the plant-life, the animal life, and more importantly, the course of human history—all these things are sustained and guided by His powerful word.
This is even more incredible when we remember that He also subjected His creation to futility. One of the laws that the Creator built into the creation is the law of entropy. Entropy simply means that matter goes from a state of order to disorder over time, much like a child’s room, or my garage.
So, the physical creation is breaking down. The nuclear reactions in stars run out. Vegetable matter decays. Animals and people are born, live, and die. Nations fall. Yet during all these events, Christ also manages the entropy so that things do not break down too fast, and He overrides natural law. The Israelites’ clothing and sandals did not wear out, and the grain and oil of a certain widow did not run out. All things fall apart, but God ensures that even the progression from order to disorder is within limits He sets.
This opening salvo immediately puts the focus on the Son of God as the Messenger, the Heir of all things, the Creator and the Sustainer. This was to remind the audience of what and whom they had been neglecting through focusing on lesser things.
Verse 3 contains two distinct actions: Jesus purged our sins and He sat down at the right hand of the Most High. Notice that even though these two actions are mentioned one after the other, there was a space of time between them. His sitting down—His enthronement— did not happen immediately after He purged our sins.
