Jesus, the Eternal Creator of Heaven and Earth

 

And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” (Hebrews 1:10-12 ESV).

 

The next declaration of Jesus’ superiority is found in our reading today (vv. 10-12). Jesus is superior to the angels because He is the eternal Creator of heaven and earth. This sixth quotation is taken from Psalm 102:25-27, which begins, “A prayer of the afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.” The psalmist has gone through some difficult trials, which he describes in strong poetic language in the first part of the psalm. He feels as if he is about to be taken away in the mid-life. But in his weakness and desperation, he considers the eternality, power, and unchangeableness of the Lord as Creator. He says that even though heaven and earth will perish, God remains. Like a man throws away old clothes, God will throw away the universe, but He remains the same, and His years will never come to an end.

 

The remarkable thing about the quote is that in the psalm, these verses clearly describe Almighty God, and yet the author of Hebrews applies them directly to Jesus. Oscar Cullman observed, “We should generally give much more consideration to the by no means self-evident fact that after the death of Jesus the first Christians without hesitation transferred to him what the Old Testament says about God” (in P. Hughes, p. 68).

 

To this Jewish church, these words were not just a theological statement about Jesus’ superiority to the angels. They were also meant to be a source of great comfort during trials. The same eternal Creator who sustained the psalmist during his calamity would sustain them in the midst of their troubles. And that eternal Creator is none other than their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (cf. Hebrews 13:8). Even if you are taken away, you have a lasting refuge in the eternal, unchanging Lord Jesus Christ. Death has no hold over the children of God. It is forever defeated!