What does it mean that Jesus upholds all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3)?

All the activities of God are by His Word. As to creation, “He spake, and it was done” (Ps. 33:9); “The worlds were framed by the Word of God” (Heb. 11:3); and, “Upholding all things by the Word of His power” (Heb. 1:3). By that Word, the creation subsists, and without it, it would have no existence. Hence He who is the living Word is ever said to be the Creator, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3, 10; Col. 1:16-17).

In verse 3 we also find the wonderful fact that the Son is the Upholder of all things. The previous verse has set Him before us as the Creator of all, and as the One who shall inherit all things, now we discover that all things are upheld and hang together by the word of His power. We may talk sometimes about the laws of the universe. We may observe the working of the law of gravitation, though the real why and wherefore of it is unknown to us. We may even, before we are much older, have to listen to fickle "science" altering or overturning all that she had previously asserted as to these laws. Well, so be it! We know that THE LAW of the universe is the word of His power, and this is all that really matters. Any laws which we may observe, or think we observe, are very secondary, and should the leaders of scientific speculation suddenly reverse their pronouncements we shall not turn a hair.

He upholds "all things by the word of His power." He is the God of providence, and has not left His creation, or retreated back into the invisible glory where He was, but presides over the whole universe. He calls the stars by name, brings them on in their courses, "for that He is strong in power; not one faileth." All the providential ordering of the world, all God's ways in government have been entrusted to His Son. "By Him all things consist."

We have another glory mentioned in this marvellous unfolding. He who is thus "the effulgence of his glory," &c., "upholds all things by the word of his power." We see the power of the utterance of the Son. The maintenance of what He created depends upon Him. This exercise of divine power is by Him who planned in perfect wisdom, and then created by His word, the worlds that are now dependent upon Him!

The Son, by the word of His power, upholds all that He has brought into being.

"Upholding all things by the word of His power," indicates that the whole of creation, with its laws that pervade it, and all the rolling orbs that spangle the sky, are upheld in their positions by the word of the Son of God.

The Son is also the Upholder of "all things by the word of His power." He maintains the universe which He has created. All the laws and principles of nature are maintained in action by the word of the Son's power. "All things subsist together by Him." (Col. 1:17.) Men of science can tell us something of the vastness and beauty of the principles which operate in nature, and they freely confess that they can only traverse the outer fringe of the wonders of the universe. But how little do they think, in most cases, that everything subsists together by the Son. There is not a bit of creation that is not upheld by the word of His power. God would have us to ponder this - to consider it in all its magnitude - and thus to contemplate the Greatness of the Son.

This too is evident in the fifth glory mentioned: "upholding all things by the word of His power." If He is the original Creator, He must he also the eternal Sustainer of all things. Nothing can subsist except by the Word of His power, which maintains all things in existence. This is indicated remarkably in Isaiah 40, the first part being the witness of John the Baptist to Christ, and verses 9 to 11 declaring His coming: "Behold, the Lord God will come," and the remainder of the chapter occupied with the greatness of this One, Who measures the waters, the heavens, the dust of the earth, and maintains the order of the heavenly orbs, so that "not one faileth." Only blindness could ignore this magnificent prophetic reference to the promised Messiah.

Passing for a moment the two glories in between, we reach the middle of the third verse, and find Him to be the One who upholds all things by the word of His power. This spans the time which we call present, arching over from eternity past to eternity to come. It is the third phase of His glory in relation to the created scene through which we are passing. He created all things, made the worlds; He upholds all things now; He shall be heir of all things.

God’s Son, who created the universe, the physical creation, holds all together by the word of His own power. When we think of the millions of stars that are visible through the telescopes of men, and consider something of their size, their distances from each other, and the speeds at which they move, the mind learns something of the greatness of Him who holds all together. It is this same blessed Person who by Himself purged our sins, and has taken His place “on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” This is the Son’s rightful place, and He sat down there because He had the right to be there.