“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.”
The author of Hebrews leverages Psalm 102 to comment on the superiority of Christ above the angels.* Likely understood by the original readers of Hebrews to be a messianic passage, it’s use is not a surprise.* This passage highlights three main characteristics of Christ:
His eternal permanence
His role in creation
His position as Lord
There was a time when a Godly worldview served as the launching pad of science.* The study of the world around us began with an understanding of the Creator as the source of everything. As the Enlightenment exploded, reason became king, and humanity began to seek to find their own starting point for truth, separate from God.*
This abandonment of God does not remove God from the picture, however. Though humanity runs from Him, they unwittingly run to Him.
The late astronomer and astrophysicist Robert Jastrow explained,
For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance, he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.
The truth of God spans time, reaching to the very edges of eternity. Sitting at the seed of creation, unchanging since, and sitting at the right hand of the Father, we find Jesus Christ. As the Truth that sets us free, Jesus reigns supreme to all else. Angels, as the writer of Hebrews explains, as created things, do not deserve our worship.* Christ alone deserves our worship.
How many times have we worshipped the messenger over the Message Sender? How often have we looked to saints (dead or alive) for things that only God can give? How is it that we reach to the created over the Creator for help?
We can run from the truth of Christ, we can attempt to explain away His handiwork, but ultimately, we will find ourselves face-to-face with Him.
The supremacy of Christ is expressed through His eternal permanence, His creative work, and His status as Lord over all. These truths give us rest in our souls as we realize that the permanence of His person guarantees the permanence of His work.* The salvation that He gives to those He created exists for eternity, and as Lord over all, He can guarantee it.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to remember the supremacy of Christ over all else. Perhaps today God wants you to consider creation through the lens of Christ. Maybe today God wants you to allow Christ to take His place in your life as the foundation of science and rational thinking. Perhaps God wants you to rest in the knowledge of the permanence of Christ and His work.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
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*Stedman, R. C. (1992). Hebrews (Heb 1:7–14). IVP Academic.
Grindheim, S. (2023). The Letter to the Hebrews (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 129–133). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
France, R. T. (2006). Hebrews. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, p. 44–45). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. (1998). Hebrews (p. 80–82). Zondervan Publishing House.