When There Was No Way!

“O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.” (Psalm 139:1-6 ESV)

 This is a wonderful blessing for the believer, to know that our God is ever before us. Later in this Psalm, the writer states, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” If you have come to that place in your life where you realize that you are not the center of the universe, that this world and eternity don’t rest on your moral character and your performing acts of charity toward others. Then you have repented (you have changed your mind) and you know that God, the creator of everything, has provided a way of salvation for you when there was no way.

We are told in Romans 5:8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God was making a way for us to spend eternity with Him, even though we had no possible way of being holy enough on our own. Did you notice this verse says that God shows His love for us while we were still sinners? God loves us with an everlasting love from the very beginning of time. While we were living our lives in sin, away from God’s holiness, He showed His love for us. While we thought we were doing enough good deeds to gain entrance into God’s presence, He showed His love for us. While we were happy with ourselves, thinking, “at least I’m not as bad as that guy,” God showed His love for us by having His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, die for us.” To quote the Psalmist, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”

Personally, I’ll never understand why God did this, not only for a world of people that didn’t care for Him, turned their backs on Him, lived as though they had all the answers.  But He did this marvelous thing of providing eternal life for someone like me. Now this isn’t false humility, it’s a fact. On the surface, we can talk about how “bad” we were, all the things we did as non-believers, but honestly, that doesn’t scratch the surface of our depravity.

You know what I’m talking about; you know the depths of your sin. You know the thoughts you had, the desires that flooded your whole being; you know deep down what you were thinking, but were far too civilized to say it out loud. You know what no one else knew. But God knew them all. “O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” You couldn’t hide anything from God then, and you can’t hide anything from God now. But what is so amazing is that even knowing the dark secrets of our hearts, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” My friend, that kind of love is beyond our ability to understand fully. Or as the Psalmist says, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”

Even knowing our every thought, God still loved us. How marvelous is that?

But God’s mercy (not receiving what I deserve, which was death for my sins) and grace (receiving what I don’t deserve, complete forgiveness for my sins) continue way beyond our being saved. God’s love never stops; there is no limit to His love, no depth to His compassion for those who have called upon the name of His Son for salvation. The same God who knew the depths of our wicked hearts before we were saved, while we were still in our trespasses and sins, knows the secrets of our hearts now. When we, as His children, don’t know how to pray for what we need, we have the Holy Spirit that indwells us, who will help us pray.

When we are so broken-hearted that, once again, we let God down, He still loves us and forgives us our sins. We know that “You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.”, and we are no longer fearful at that knowledge, but grateful that the One who loves us is the one who indwells us.

Some people know that Jesus Christ is the Savior for the world; they have heard John 3:16 many times: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” And they think that it might be true for others, but certainly can’t be true for someone like them. They haven’t met the Savior who has “searched me and knows me,” who has provided a way of forgiveness for every single one of my sins: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Remember, my friend, you don’t have to understand everything about God’s love for you. After all, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.” God doesn’t require that we completely understand His ways, His mercy, or His love. He asks us to accept them as a gift from Him and believe that His Son made a way for us when there was no way.

"Living in Grace is not about what I can do, but about what Jesus has already done!"