Inheritors of All Things

September 10th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 1:2 …in these last days [God] has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

Jesus of Nazareth proved to be the Christ, the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, through His life, death, and resurrection from the dead. The writings of the OT looked forward to this Messiah, prophesied His coming, and were seen to be perfect prophecies after Jesus arrived and fulfilled what was written about Him hundreds of years prior. When Jesus did arrive on the scene, God spoke through Him and worked mightily through Him. In fact, it is through Jesus that God Himself is revealed (John 1:18). Therefore, what Jesus said—what His followers recorded Him saying in Scripture, is God speaking through His Son in these last days.

After revealing that God has spoken through His Son in these “last days,” the writer of Hebrews notes a handful of traits that belong solely to the Son of God, Jesus, through whom God speaks. First, God has “appointed” (Gr. tithēmi) His Son—assigning Him a responsibility, or duty. In this case, God assigned Jesus to be the “heir” (Gr. klēronomos)—one entitled by law to inherit something. That something in v. 2 is said to be “all things.” Previously, when God the Father spoke through the prophets in the OT in Psalm 2:6-9, He is quoted as speaking to His pre-incarnate Son, saying, “I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.” The pre-incarnate Christ responds, saying, “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’ ” God the Father then responds, saying, “Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ ”

After Adam sinned in Genesis 3, all of his offspring would be cursed with sin. Jesus, however, reversed that by providing atonement for sin. As such, Jesus became the inheritor of all that God originally delegated to Adam, for Jesus came to rectify the curse that Adam brought upon God’s creation. Since Adam gave mankind’s inheritance away by sinning, Jesus, as the heir of all things, came to restore God’s original purpose in His creation. Those who place their faith in the “heir of all things” for salvation begin to enjoy the good things of God. Their union with Christ as the heir of all things allows them to also become “heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16-17).

The second distinguishing trait that belongs only to the Son of God through whom God speaks in these last days is that He is the actual Creator of the world (v. 2). God spoke through Moses in Genesis 1:1, revealing that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God in Genesis 1:1 is called Elohim, the eternally existing God who “calls into being that which does not exist” (Rom. 4:17). Yet Elohim is clearly equated with Jesus Christ, for it is He who “made the world” (Heb. 1:2). With this, the rest of the NT is in agreement, for the Gospel of John reveals that it was the “logos,” the word of God that became flesh, namely Jesus, through whom “all things came into being, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3). Likewise, Paul says, “one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things” (1 Cor. 8:6)… “For by [Christ], all things were created, in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible…all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16)… “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen” (Rom. 11:36).

Food For Thought
As the Creator of all things, Jesus is naturally the “heir” of all things. This includes us as believers in Jesus Christ—children whom He redeemed through His death on the cross in conjunction with our faith. Paul adds, “And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ… (Rom. 8:17). So all that Christ inherits, so too do His followers—all things.