When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Is there a better hymn about the cross on which Jesus died? Isaac Watts wrote these incredible words, and today I'll sing the two most common tunes associated with the hymn. As you 'survey' the wondrous cross today, may you give your life, your all to the one who died there.
Today's Good Friday, and our Friday Classic Hymn has to be a song about the death of Jesus. Last year for Good Friday I did "The Old Rugged Cross," and I thought, can there be a better song about the death of Jesus? Well, I think this one might be it.
This song has been said to be the greatest hymn of all time. It's been said to be the most beautiful hymn in all of English hymnody. It's one that is not altogether too familiar for me, although I knew it from Chris Tomlin's version which has that chorus in the middle. "The wonderful cross" – we used to sing that at the church I was growing up in, but it was only three of the verses. I've since learnt that there's another melody. I'm going to sing them both later.
This whole week as I've been learning this song, these words have been in my head, and it's been very special. I feel like as the words have been swirling around my mind, they just seem to have gone deeper and deeper. I seem to be getting more out of it every time I sing it.
What does this song mean to you? Do you have a special memory of the song or a special story attached to the song? Maybe you sang it in a particular church or it's helped you in some way in your faith. Please share that in the comments below. As always, if you could subscribe to the channel and hit that thumbs up button on the video, it really helps the channel get out there and these videos get to more people.
Let me tell you the story behind "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."
The Story Behind "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"
This beautiful song was written by Isaac Watts – none other than Isaac Watts. He is one of the greats when it comes to hymns. Many people consider him the finest hymn writer of all, and I've already covered his story in my video on "Joy to the World." Maybe you'd like to go and check that one out.
Let me share again that he was born in 1674, was a very bright child, and just excelled in language and writing. Pretty soon he was writing his own rhymes. The older he got, the more he hated the church music of his time. It's said that at that time the music was dull, nobody really sang, and the words were pretty poor.
He came home one day and was complaining about this to his father, who said to him, "Well, why don't you come up with something better?" That very evening he'd written his first hymn, and it was well received in their congregation. But it was controversial because at the time people didn't want anything new – they wanted the old favourites. That sounds familiar.
When he started writing these new songs, of course some people didn't react well to them, but many people did react quite well to them. They became favourites and they still are favourites in many parts of the world. For a long time he wrote a new hymn every Sunday to be used in church. This one he wrote in 1707 to be used for communion. It doesn't say much about communion itself, but it talks about the death of Christ, which of course is what we commemorate every time we go to the Lord's table.
Now this particular one was controversial because it is said to be the first English hymn to use the word "I" – "When I survey" – which many people thought was too self-centred. There's a great deal of controversy around modern Christian music being too self-centred and not God-centred enough. Yet he has a song that I would say is very God-centred, very deep in its theology about Jesus. Yet in the early days it was seen as too selfish. How about that? How our standards have dropped.
When he published this hymn, he called it "Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ," and next to it he put the words of Galatians 6:14: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world."
Watts died in his 70s, wrote many hymns before that, and of all of them this is probably the one that people love the most. It's still sung today and it still has a deep impact on people's lives as they go through these words.
Let us go through these words and see what it is that he wrote.
What Do the Lyrics of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" Mean?
Verse 1: Personal Contemplation of the Cross
Verse one is the one we all know: "When I survey the wondrous cross."
Stop and first of all think about how he used that word "I." This was very personal. Of course, the cross needs to be personal. It needs to be an individual thing. Of course it is more than just individual – it's corporate for all of us – but this needs to be you looking at the cross and realising Christ died for you.
That word "survey" is so beautiful. I don't think that word is in any other song that I know, but it's such a good word to talk about a deep look – not just a glance, not just a quick thought, but a careful consideration of what happened on the cross. Perhaps this Good Friday you're going to survey the cross. You're going to look closely at what happened there and think deeply about why Jesus did what He did.
"When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the prince of glory died."
Strange the way he wrote "died" there in the original. I don't know why – if that was just the way that it was spelled in those days. But the interesting thing is that that was not the original line. When he first wrote it, it said, "When I survey the wondrous cross, where the young prince of glory died." He changed it two years later. No one's quite sure why, and maybe it's a pity because that "young prince" is something you don't think of a lot with Jesus. But He was – He was a young man, He was in His early 30s.
"My richest gain I count but loss."
The things in my life that make me the richest are actually losses compared to the wonder of knowing Jesus. This comes straight out of Philippians. Paul said almost the exact same thing in his letter to the Philippians – that compared to the wonder of knowing Jesus, everything is a loss. None of it can compare.
I wonder if you feel this way about the cross. Looking at the cross, do you think the things that make me most wealthy in this world are just nothing compared to the wonder of knowing the crucified Saviour?
"And pour contempt on all my pride."
Any pride that's left in me, I pour contempt over it. I don't need to have any pride in me because – look at Jesus, look at what He did. I want to worship Him and not have any pride of my own.
Beautiful words.
Verse 2: Boasting Only in the Cross
Verse two goes on, and this is one that I don't think I've ever sung before:
"Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God."
We don't use the word "save" like that anymore. We'd probably say "but." But Lord, I don't want to boast about anything except for what Christ did. Here is my boast. Again, this is from Scripture. Paul talks about boasting only in the cross. I've got nothing to draw any attention to myself. I've got nothing to uplift myself. All my boast in life is about what Christ did on the cross for me. That is amazing, that is beautiful.
"All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood."
What a great line: "the vain things that charm me most." Isn't our world full of vain things that charm us? Think of what entertains you in this life. Aren't they, in the end, vain – even though they charm you in a specific way? Whether it's movies or TV shows or books or music or whatever – in the end they're all kind of vain and pointless when you're surveying the wondrous cross. You realise just how silly they all are. We sacrifice them and say, "Lord, You are the greatest. You are everything to me. It is You that holds my attention and my delight."
Beautiful words, beautiful verse. It makes us think: did Jesus die so that we can just go on living like the world, or are we sacrificing the vain things so that we can do the things that He calls us to?
Verse 3: Love and Sorrow Mingled
Let's look at verse three:
"See from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down."
Beautiful.
"Did e'er such love and sorrow meet?"
There's sorrow and love, love and sorrow. This mingling of these two things is a beautiful picture. He's talking about the blood of Christ, isn't he, that flowed from His head and His hands and His feet? Remember, He was brutally beaten. He was scourged. He was nailed to a tree and awfully abused.
As that blood flowed, it flowed with a mixture of sorrow at the world's sin – because what they were doing to Him was a picture of what all sin does to God. But it was also a picture of love, that He would shed His blood while we were still sinners. It's a picture of His love.
Yes, every drop of blood was a mixture of sorrow and love. Did e'er such love and sorrow meet? Surely not. Surely there's no sorrow as deep as the sorrow of God for the sin of the world. Surely there is no love so deep as the love of God for the sinners of the world whom He wants to redeem.
"Or thorns compose so rich a crown?"
Has there ever been a more beautiful crown than the crown of thorns that Christ wore? It didn't have jewels like fancy crowns today, but it was beautiful. It was rich because it was the crown of thorns that was placed on Him as He bought the forgiveness of the world.
Yes, as you survey the wondrous cross, what you see there is love and sorrow. You see the answer for that sorrow, which is the love. The answer for the sin of the world, which causes God such sorrow, is the love of Jesus on the cross, reconciling us to Him and to God if we put our faith in Him.
Wonderful.
Verse 4: Dead to the World
Verse four is one that is pretty much forgotten today, and I wonder if you've ever sung this. Do you sing this one in your church?
"His dying crimson, like a robe, spreads o'er His body on the tree."
That's a pretty gruesome picture of His blood spreading over His whole body like a robe. Very graphic.
Then these last two lines – I love this:
"Then am I dead to all the globe, and all the globe is dead to me."
The globe, the world – as Christ dies, I die to the world. When I place my faith in Him, I am crucified with Christ, Paul said. We die to the world and the world dies to us as we are covered in the blood of Christ as it spreads over us like a robe.
Oh, wow. That's a beautiful verse, don't you think? Maybe we should sing that more often. Maybe it is a bit gory, but worth singing.
Verse 5: Love's Ultimate Demand
Then the beautiful fifth verse, which is just one of my favourite things ever to sing:
"Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small."
In today's versions we normally say "an offering" – that were an offering far too small. If I were to offer God everything that the planet and all of the universe contains, that would be an offering or present far too small. Not even that would be enough to say thank You.
"Love so amazing, so divine."
So amazing, so divine. What deep love.
"Demands my soul, my life, my all."
This love demands my soul – the deepest part of me – my life, the way that I live, my all. Everything, everything that I have is demanded by the depth of what Jesus did on the cross.
Oh, this is as good as it gets when it comes to hymns about the death of Christ, isn't it?
I wonder if this is convicting you today. These last few lines convict me every time. In light of the great, deep, beautiful love of Christ, am I giving Him back my soul, my life, my all?
Of course, it's not as if I give it to Him to try to earn His love. It's not as if I trade it – "I give You my life so that You will forgive me." No. It's what Jesus did that earned my forgiveness. My offering would never be able to earn the forgiveness that Jesus bought for us on the cross. But in response to the free gift that He's given us, we give ourselves back and say, "Lord, take me. Use me. May my life be used in Your glory and to Your glory in everything."
Wow. What words.
Conclusion
Which words were particularly meaningful for you today? Would you share that in the comments below, please?
As we've journeyed through this magnificent hymn, we've seen how Isaac Watts captured the profound mystery of the cross – the mingling of sorrow and love, the beauty of sacrifice, and the demand that such amazing love places upon us. This hymn calls us not just to observe the cross from a distance, but to survey it deeply, to let it transform our values, our pride, and our very lives.
This Good Friday, may we truly survey the wondrous cross and respond with everything we have – our soul, our life, our all.
What a special blessing to be able to sing these words together. Thank you to those who support this ministry through Patreon or PayPal. Your donations make it possible for me to spend the time doing this every week in addition to running my church and doing all the other teaching things I do.
Please join my mailing list if you haven't already, and if you enjoy my music, head over to my website where you can find a whole lot more of it.
Come, let's survey the wondrous cross together.
References
Ian Bradley. The Penguin Book of Hymns. 1989. Penguin Group: London
Kenneth W. Osbeck. 101 Hymn Stories. 1985. Kregal Publications: Grand Rapids
John McLelland. The Ambassador Book of Great Hymn Stories. 1994. Ambassador Productions Ltd: Belfast
Frank Colquhoun. Preaching on Favourite Hymns. 1986. Mowbray: London
