BUT THOU REMAINEST
by Ivan Maddox
Hebrews 1:10-12 is sometimes used to
prove that Jesus created the heavens and the earth, and that he has existed
from the everlasting past to the everlasting future. As we shall see, this passage does not
establish or support either of these points.
Hebrews
1:10-12.
10 And,
Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the
heavens are the works of thine hands:
11 They
shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall
wax old as doth a garment;
12 And as
a vesture shalt thou fold
them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall
not fail.
This passage is quoted from Psalm
102. It is part of a prayer for
deliverance. Though it is not explicitly
ascribed to the Messiah, it seems particularly appropriate on the lips of the
Messiah when he prayed in the
Hebrews
5:7b-9.
7 …when
he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
8 Though
he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things
which he suffered;
9 And
being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them
that obey him;
Verse 7 tells us explicitly what
Jesus was praying so passionately about in the garden: He did not want to die! He went to God and asked Him to deliver him
from death! Now this would be an
unbelievable prayer for God to pray! (That
is assuming, of course, that God prays!) But it would be perfectly natural for a young
man in his early thirties and facing death to pray.
In Psalm 102 we read:
Psalm
102:23-28.
23 He
weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
24 I said,
O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are throughout
all generations.
25 Of old
hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy
hands.
26 They
shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them
shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
27 But
thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
28 The
children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established
before thee.
Here the one praying, who I
believe Hebrews 1 correctly identifies as the Messiah, cries out that God has
cut short his days. In response he does
not cry out against God; instead, he goes to God in prayer and asks that God
change His decision.
He starts by contrasting his
shortened life with God’s eternal life. God has existed ever since there was man, and
will exist as long as man draws breath. According
to the Messiah, it is God, not he himself, who laid the foundation of the
earth. According to the Messiah, the
heavens are not the work of the Messiah’s hands; they are the work of God’s
hand.
One day, the Messiah continues,
the heavens and earth will pass away, but God’s life will continue on and on, as
though nothing had happened. The heavens
and earth may be changed, like a man changes his clothes, but God will remain
the same. In contrast, the Messiah
implies, his own life will have ended almost as quickly as it begun!
He does not even have the hope,
the Messiah continues, that most mortal men have, of seeing their children
continue after them as a kind of virtual immortality. He has no children. When he is gone, his line will end.
Hebrews 5:7 tells us that the
Messiah was heard; but he was not heard in the sense that God changed his mind
about his death. Instead, God gave him
the strength to be obedient unto death. From
the time he ceased praying until the moment he died,
Jesus never wavered from the course God had set for him. With God’s help, Jesus was obedient unto
death. Then God raised Jesus from the
dead!
Acts
13:32-33:
32 And we
declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the
fathers,
33 God
hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second
psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
This passage tells us that God’s
words in Hebrews 1:5 were spoken to the newly resurrected Christ:
Hebrews
1:5.
5 For
unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a
Son?
It is in this same context that
verses 10-12 are spoken. They are not
spoken by a man worshipping his Lord, or even by an angel doing homage to the
Messiah seated at God’s right hand. Instead, the words are spoken by God Himself. The words need to be understood in light of
this fact.
In Hebrews 1:10-12, God does
something incredibly dramatic: He
recites the prayer that the Messiah prayed to Him in his most critical moment
of crisis back to him. He does not
change the prayer to reflect the new state of affairs. But then, He does not have to. The words of the prayer have a whole new
meaning when considered in light of the Messiah’s resurrection.
Hebrews
1:10-12.
10 And,
Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the
heavens are the works of thine hands:
11 They
shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall
wax old as doth a garment;
12 And as
a vesture shalt thou fold
them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall
not fail.
In verse 10 God seems to be contrading other passages of scripture that attribute the
creation of the heavens and the earth to Himself; but
this is not what God is doing here. God
is still the creator of the heavens and the earth, but the Messiah has been
made by God to be His instrument in the making of a new creation.
Galatians
6:14-15.
14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I
to the world.
15 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creation. (NAS)
II
Corinthians 5:17-18.
17Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18And all
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath
given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
We ourselves are part of this new
creation in Christ. Most Christians pay
little attention to the new creation, so we try to apply those verses that talk
about it to the old creation.
Colossians
1:12-19.
12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the
forgiveness of sins:
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every
creature:
16 For by him were all things created, that are
in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by
him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the
preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Many Christians try to use verse
16 to teach that Jesus is the creator of the heavens and the earth; but there
is no mention whatsoever in this passage of the heavens, the earth, the sun,
moon and stars, plants and animals, or men and women in the list of things
created by Jesus. Instead, we are told
about thrones, dominions, principalities and powers; things that we don’t
normally associate with the creation in Genesis.
Though the language in Hebrews
1:10 pertains to the old creation, by irony the emphasis is on the new creation
which Christ DID have a critical part in bringing
forth.
In verses 11 and 12 we see that what
was true of God in the Messiah’s prayer is now true of the Messiah as well. Though the heavens and earth will pass away,
the Messiah will not change. Instead, he
will change heavens and earths like a man changes his clothes!
Notice what is missing from this
quote in Hebrews. God did not quote to
the Messiah the final words of Psalm 102:24:
Psalm
102:24b.
24b …thy
years are throughout all generations.
These words, which were spoken by
the Messiah concerning God, were omitted by God when He quoted these words to
the Messiah. Why? Because the Messiah did not exist throughout
all generations! His life is limited to
the time between his resurrection and eternity future. It does not extend to eternity past, or even
to the beginning of the earth.
Hebrews 1:10-12 does not teach or
help prove that Jesus created the heavens and the earth, nor that he has
existed from the everlasting past to the everlasting future. Neither of these are what this passage is
talking about. Hebrews 1:10-12 is about
God’s answer to the Messiah’s prayer in which he asked that his life not be cut
short. God answered his prayer with
eternal life.