Question: > 
> He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3 ESV)
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I am interested in the phrase ‘he upholds the universe’
My question is:- How could Christ uphold the universe as a helpless babe and also after he had died before the resurrection.

Answer: 
How could Christ uphold the universe as a helpless babe?

He didn't.

Correctly, Jesus, *upholding all things* (πάντα
panta) by the power of His word. Nothing to do with 'universe' and a very sloppy/biased attempt of the ESV to render the Greek into English by inserting a word that is not there.

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> whom He (God) appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the ages (not world or universe). 3And he is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power. Heb 1:2-3
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The context gives us the *timeline* of when Jesus became the one who, "upholds all things by the word of his power".

This power was not always his to use - being given to him at his resurrection and exaltation to the 'right hand of God' who made him heir, and *through whom* God finished the creation of man in His image. Jesus being the "representation" of God's nature.

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> Jesus is ‘the image of the invisible God’ and ‘the firstborn of all creation’ Col 1:15.
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2 Cor 4:4 ‘Christ, who is the image of God’, 3:18 ‘we… are being transformed into the same image’, Rom 8:29 also.
It is impossible to answer this question as we are not told so we cannot know. Indeed, if we knew the answer to this question, we would be God.

Equally mysterious, is the the fact that

* twice in the Gospel of John, we are told the Jesus raised Himself from the dead, John 2:19-21 and 10:17, 18.
* However, we are also told that the Father raised Jesus from the dead as well, Rom 6:4, Gal 1:1, Eph 1:17-20.
* Further, we are also told that the Holy Spirit is the source of life as well, Rom 1:4 & 8:11, 1 Peter 3:18.
* Acts 2:24, 3:15, 4:10, 5:30, 10:40, 13:30, 17:31, Rom 4:24, 1 Cor 15:15, Col 2:20, Heb 13:20, 1 Peter 1:3, 1 Thess 1:10 simply say that “God” raised Jesus without specifying any specific member of the Godhead.

All this simply illustrates the fact that the Godhead acts in complete unison. Just how that occurs we are not told. The same is presumably true of God upholding the universe.