One of the places in which Jesus is called God is in the inspired epistles to Hebrews:
“but of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God (ho theos), is forever and ever, and a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. So God, your God, has anointed you over your companions with the oil of rejoicing.’” Hebrews 1:8-9
tn Or possibly, “Your throne is God forever and ever.” This translation is quite doubtful, however, since (1) in the context the Son is being contrasted to the angels and is presented as far better than they. The imagery of God being the Son’s throne would seem to be of God being his authority. If so, in what sense could this not be said of the angels? In what sense is the Son thus contrasted with the angels? (2) The μέν…δέ (men…de) construction that connects v. 7 with v. 8 clearly lays out this contrast: “On the one hand, he says of the angels…on the other hand, he says of the Son.” Thus, although it is grammatically possible that θεός (theos) in v. 8 should be taken as a predicate nominative, the context and the correlative conjunctions are decidedly against it. Hebrews 1:8 is thus a strong affirmation of the deity of Christ. New English Translation (NET https://netbible.org/bible/Hebrews+1; emphasis mine)
The author speaks of Christ’s post-resurrection and physical ascension into heaven to begin his eternal reign as God.
The question before us is, in what sense does Hebrews identify Jesus as God, i.e., in the absolute sense of being essentially coequal with the Father? Or is the risen Son God in a functional, economic sense, where Jesus possesses the authority of God to rule over the universe without actually being divine? Or has Christ become divine, having been deified after his heavenly exaltation, where he reigns as a secondary, subordinate deity?
The context provides the answer.
The letter begins by describing Christ as the exact imprint of God’s infinite, uncreated substance, and the Agent of creation by whom all the ages were brought into existence who personally sustains the entire creation by his powerful word:
“But now in these last days God has spoken to us through ·his Son [or a son; 1:3]. God has ·chosen [appointed] his Son to ·own [be heir/inheritor of] all things, and through him he made the ·world [universe; ages; C comprising both space and time; John 1:3]. The Son ·reflects [or radiates; shines forth] the glory of God [John 1:14] and ·shows exactly what God is like [L is the exact representation/imprint/stamp of his being/essence/nature]. He ·holds everything together [sustains/upholds all things] with his powerful word…” Hebrews 1:2-3a Expanded Bible (EXB)
Here’s another translation:
“in these last days did speak to us in a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He did make the ages; who being the brightness of the glory, and the impress of His subsistence, bearing up also the all things by the saying of his might…” Young’s Literal Translation (YLT)
According to the Hebrew Bible, there is no creature that resembles God or does the works God does in the way that God does them:
“There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord, Nor are there any works like Yours. All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God.” Psalm 86:8-10 Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)
“The heavens will praise Your wonders, O Yahweh; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the sky is comparable to Yahweh? Who among the sons of the mighty is like Yahweh, A God greatly dreaded in the council of the holy ones, And fearsome above all those who are around Him? O Yahweh God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty Yah? Your faithfulness also surrounds You.” Psalm 89:5-8 LSB
And yet Hebrews states that the Son is exactly like God, being identical to the Father in essence.
The OT scriptures further attest that Yahweh alone created and sustains all creation:
“Who ALONE stretches out the heavens, And tramples down the waves of the sea;” Job 9:8 LSB
“Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, ‘I, Yahweh, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone,’” Isaiah 44:24 LSB
“Thus says the God, Yahweh, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it,” Isaiah 42:5 LSB
“Hear Me, O Jacob, even Israel [a]whom I called; I am He, I am the first, I am also the last. Also, My hand founded the earth, And My right hand spread out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand together.” Isaiah 48:12-13 LSB
This next one is rather interesting:
“And the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, ‘Rise up, bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting! O may Your glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise! You alone are Yahweh. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down to You.’” Nehemiah 9:5-6 LSB
Here we are told that all the heavenly beings worship Yahweh in recognition of his being the Creator and Sustainer of all creation.
And yet, remarkably, Hebrews not only identifies Christ as the Creator and Sustainer of all things, it even cites an OT text, where the angelic gods of the nations are commanded to worship Yahweh,
“Praise, O heavens, his people; worship him, all you gods! For he will avenge the blood of his children and take vengeance on his adversaries; he will repay those who hate him and cleanse the land for his people.” Deuteronomy 32:43 New Revised Standard Version (NRSVUE)
“Rejoice, ye heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice ye Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him; and the Lord shall purge (kai ekkathariei Kyrios) the land of his people.” Septuagint (LXX)
“All servants of images are put to shame, those who make their boast in worthless idols; all gods bow down before him.” Psalm 97:7 NRSVUE
“Let all that worship graven images be ashamed, who boast of their idols; worship him, all ye his angels.” Psalm 96:7 LXX
And has the Father himself ascribing this reference to Christ his Son!
“… who, having accomplished cleansing for sins (<di’> autou katharismon ton hamartion poiesamenos), sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high… And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, ‘And let all the angels of God worship Him.’” Hebrews 1:3b, 6 LSB
Note how the worship that the angels are commanded to render to Yahweh is ascribed to Christ, thereby identifying the risen Lord as Yahweh that became a human being!
Further note that it is the Son who purges/cleanses from sin, which is precisely what Yahweh does according to the aforementioned passage in Deuteronomy 32:43!
This explains why the inspired author could take the following OT text, where Yahweh is glorified as the unchangeable Creator and Sustainer of the heavens and earth,
“A Prayer of the afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before Yahweh. O Yahweh, hear my prayer! And let my cry for help come to You… But You, O Yahweh, abide forever, And the remembrance of Your name from generation to generation… I say, ‘O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days, Your years are from generation to all generations. Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You will remain; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.’” Psalm 102:1, 12, 24-27 LSB
And have the Father applying it directly to his beloved Son:
“He also says to the Son, “In the beginning, Lord, YOU laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with YOUR hands. They will perish, but YOU remain forever. They will wear out like old clothing. YOU will fold them up like a cloak and discard them like old clothing. But YOU are always the same; YOU will live forever.’” Hebrews 1:10-12 New Living Translation (NLT)
In other words, Hebrews has the Father glorifying and praising Christ as Yahweh Almighty Incarnate, being that very same immutable Creator and Sustainer of all things spoken of in Psalm 102 who then became a Man for our redemption!
As the NET note indicates:
sn You founded the earth…your years will never run out. In its original setting Ps 102:25-27 refers to the work of God in creation, but here in Hebrews 1:10-12 the writer employs it in reference to Christ, the Lord, making a strong argument for the essential deity of the Son. (Emphasis mine)
The foregoing helps us appreciate the sense in which Hebrews describes Jesus as God.
Christ is not God in a representational, functional sense.
Christ is not God in a secondary, inferior sense due to being deified after his exaltation.
Christ is God in the absolute sense of being Yahweh Almighty in the flesh, the eternal Son of God who is co-equal to the Father in substance, glory, power and majesty.
Noted Evangelical scholar Murray J. Harris does a fine job of summing up the testimony of Hebrews 1:
“One may therefore isolate the contribution of verse 8 to the argument of Hebrews 1-2 as being to show that the superiority of Jesus to angels does not reside simply in his having distinctive titles, an exalted status, or redemptive functions, but preeminently in his belonging to a different category-that of deity.71 Just as he is set apart from sinners because he is ‘holy and without fault or stain’ (7:26), so he is set apart from angels because he may be appropriately addressed as theos:72 to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Your throne, O God, will endure for ever and ever’? No angel was ever dignified by the title theos because no angel shared intrinsically in the divine nature.73 This use of theos in reference to Jesus is all the more significant because the author carefully avoids using the term unnecessarily in 1:1-14, preferring to use a circumlocution (1:3; cf. 8:1) and to leave the subject of successive verbs of saying unexpressed (1:5-7, 13).
“In addition, from one point of view 1:8a serves as a fulcrum within Hebrews 1. If 6 is a vocative, it is the first of three terms of address in this chapter, all referring to Jesus and all within OT quotations drawn from the Psalms: ho theos (v. 8 = Ps. 44:7 LXX), kyrie (v. 10 =Ps. 101:26 LXX),74 and [su]75 and kathou (v. 13 =Ps. 109:1 LXX). Whether these OT passages had already been associated in a ‘testimony book’ of christological texts or in the liturgical usage of the early church, it is impossible to say, but the christological confession of Thomas (ho kyrios mou kai ho theos mou, John 20:28) shows how readily the titles theos and kyrios could be juxtaposed in the worship of Jesus.
“When the Son is said to be ‘the radiant light of God’s glory (on apaugasma te doxes)’ (v. 3 JB) and to bear ‘the imprint of God’s nature (charakter tes hypostaseos autou)’ (v. 3), he is being described as the intrinsic possessor of the nature of God76 without actually being given the generic title of ‘God.’ What verse 3 implies, verse 8 makes explicit: the Son is rightly addressed as theos; inasmuch as he is the exact representation of the very being of ho theos. Verse 8 also alludes to the expression angeloi theou in verse 6,77 where theos and auto refer to different persons.78 It is wholly appropriate, indeed imperative, that the angels of God worship Jesus, the firstborn, for he is by nature included within the generic category denoted by theosand therefore is a legitimate and necessary object of adoration.79” (Harris, Jesus as God: The New Testament Use of Theos in Reference to Jesus [Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI 1992], pp. 221-222; bold emphasis mine)
He further states:
“But to suggest that verse 8a is pivotal within the chapter is not to claim that the address theos is the zenith or the principal affirmation of the chapter. Of the three main titles given to Jesus in Hebrews 1, hyios is the title on which attention is focused (vv. 2, 5 bis, 5a), so that theos (v. 8) and kyrie (v. 10) may be said to explicate two aspects of that sonship, viz., divinity and sovereignty. The principal point in the chapter is that the exalted Son is vastly superior to the angels (vv. 4-5, 13) as a divine King who is worshiped (vv. 6-9) and as a sovereign Creator who is changeless (vv. 10-12). In that verse 4 enunciates the theme of the superiority of the Son to angels that is to be developed, it forms the focal point of Hebrews 1-2.” (Ibid., p. 223; bold emphasis mine)
And:
“Sometimes the elements of this divine-human paradox are expressed elsewhere in the epistle in close juxtaposition,94 but generally the author is content to stress one or other aspect as his argument demands. That he believes in the full deity of Jesus is clear: Jesus is described as the perfect representation of God’s glory and nature (1:3); he not only existed before he appeared on earth (10:5), before Melchizedek (7:3), before human history began (1:2), or before the universe was created (1:10), but he also existed and exists eternally (7:16; 9:14; 13:8); like his Father he may be called ‘Lord’;96 he is creator (1:10), sustainer, (1:3), and heir (1:2) of the universe, that is, everything in time and space (tous aiona, 1:2); he is ‘Son’ (hyios)97, and ‘the Son of God’ (ho hyious tou theou),98 the timeless on of 1:3 pointing to a natural, not adoptive, sonship;99 he is worshiped by angels (1:6) and is the object of human faith (12:2); he is sovereign over the world to come (2:5); and passages referring to Yahweh in the OT are applied to him.100” (Ibid., p. 225; bold emphasis mine)
Harris concludes his discussion on Hebrews 1:8:
“Finally, Christ’s eternality. ‘Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever’ affirms that Christ’s personal rule is eternal and implies that Christ, as ruler, is also eternal.104 Eis ton aiona eis tou aionos (v. 8a) anticipates the phrase eis ton aiona of Psalm 110:4 (109:4 LXX) cited three times by the author in reference to the eternity of the Melchizedekian order of priesthood (5:6; 6:20; 7:17).105 Jesus is a priest ‘forever’ after the order of Melchizedek, and the treatment in Hebrews of the relationship between these two figures constitutes ‘the culmination of the epistle’s argument,’106 ‘the kernel and focus of the entire Epistle.’107 Other statements that are reminiscent of this theme of Christ’s eternal nature are ‘your years will never end’ (1:12); ‘the power of an indestructible life’ (7:16); ‘he continues for ever … he is able for all time (eis to panteles) to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them’ (7:24-25); ‘through his eternal spirit (dia pneumatos aioniou) (9:14);108 ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (eis tous aionas)’ (13:8).109…
“Two general conclusions may now be stated. First, although some slight degree of uncertainty remains as to whether elohim in Psalm. 45:7 (MT) is a vocative, there can be little doubt that the LXX translator construed it so (see chapter VIII) and that the author of Hebrews, whose quotations of the OT generally follow the LXX, assumed that the Septuagintal ho theos in Psalm 44:7 was a vocative and incorporated it in this sense into his argument in chapter 1, an argument that was designed to establish the superiority of the Son over the angels. The appellation theos that was figurative and hyperbolic when applied to a mortal king was applied to the immortal Son in a literal and true sense.110 Jesus is not merely superior to the angels. Equally with the Father he shares in the divine nature (ho theos, v. 8) while remaining distinct from him (ho theos sou, v. 9). The author places Jesus far above any angel with respect to nature and function, and on a par with God with regard to nature but subordinate to God with regard to function. There is an ‘essential’ unity but a functional subordination.” (Ibid., pp. 226-228; bold emphasis mine)
FURTHER READING
The Book of Hebrews and Jesus as Creator
JESUS AS THE ETERNAL CREATOR IN HEBREWS
The Supremacy of Jesus according to Hebrews 1
JESUS THE ETERNAL CREATOR AND SUSTAINER
Answering Islam Blog 
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