‘Upholding all things by the word of his power’
Hebrews 1.3

All it took were 797 words (in our English translation) to record the fashioning of our vast universe and the contents of it (Genesis 1). By contrast this article contains 822 words to declare so little. I write this simply to describe the enormity, the blessed enormity, of the word of power in the Godhead. All it took to create every conceivable thing that exists in heaven and earth was a few words; it was indeed ‘the word of his power’ (Hebrews 1.3).

That was creation. Our verse is speaking of the sustaining of that creation. The sun, moon, stars; the earth, the seas; the winds, and rains. Every conceivable providence is of the same calibre of power as the creating Word. That power undergirds history, politics, and whatever aspect we consider in the continuing of this world. What God provides is indeed the exercising of the upholding of His power. It is pointedly put by Peter under the direction of the Holy Spirit, ‘by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men’ (2 Peter 3.5–7). Kept in store, reserved unto fire: all by the Saviour’s upholding power.

No thought, speech, or action of man is forgotten; else how could there be such a day of judgment? The power of Christ’s Word remembers all things. The power of the Saviour ‘purged our sins’ of which He knew each one. It raised Him from the dead and He ‘sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high’ (Hebrews 1.3). ‘If the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?’ (Hebrews 2.2–3).

By the same power the inscripturated Word of God, the Bible, was formed. Think of the massive power put forth to enable many men to record exactly the Words of God as they were given to them; yet they are in perfect concord with one another, though separated by many centuries. Think of the power exercised through that Word. We may take just two examples among thousands. ‘I … will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy’ (Exodus 33.19). Think of the power of discriminating grace of which the Scripture speaks, and of the power exercised in every individual case.

Or in John 14.2–3 ‘I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again’. Think of the power which inaugurates the Saviour’s return and the resurrection of the bodies of believers. What power to restore them! So we may say with Job ‘And though aft er my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another’ (Job 19.26–27).

These very Scriptures were not only created by His power but are also upheld by the Word of His power. The Holy Scriptures, created by such power, will never cease to be preserved by that very same power. Jehovah has the power to fulfil His covenant of the continual preservation of the Scriptures. ‘As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD, My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from hence forth and for ever’ (Isaiah 59.21). The Saviour fulfils this promise by His continuing upholding power.

It is a great thrill to be a Christian upheld by such power. ‘Even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you’ (Isaiah 46.4). What a thrill it is to know that the Scriptures which we translate, publish, and distribute, by that same power will not fail to‘accomplish that which I please, andit shall prosper in the thing wheretoI sent it’ (Isaiah 55.11). The gracious power of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the identical power which created all things, upholds all things still. To belong to such a Saviour is the glorious mainstay of, and gives eternal significance to, our lives.

Written by Pastor M. Harley, a Vice President of the Society. First published in Quarterly Record 640.