Introduction to "When I Survey"
Isaac Watts wrote the hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” in 1707. It first appeared in his collection Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Watts wrote many of his hymns based on scripture, especially the Psalms. The first line of the second verse of “When I Survey” is a paraphrase of Philippians 6:14. For more information on this Hymn and the hymn writer and composer see the article by Tel Asiado
Looking to the Cross
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Hebrew 12:2 says, “Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.” As one looks to Jesus, they must see and be reminded of the Cross on which the “Prince of Glory” died. The suffering of Christ was not the gain by the Jewish zealots during His day, but the gain of the world.
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).” The Spotless Lamb was slain for the salvation of the world. His selflessness and propitiation (payment) for the sinner’s horrible sins are the reminders from His glorious cross.
As the sinner looks at the ultimate sacrifice for the sins that he could not pay for, he is shown that all his works are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6) and that all his worldly gain of possession and power are nothing but dung next to beautiful sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:8). It gives the Christian hope that it is through Christ’s power alone that he can live this life fully and that all the things done by his hands without Christ are contemptible in the sight of the Lord.
Turning from Pride
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
Galatians 6:14 says, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” This shows the Christian that the only thing he can boast of is the payment for the penalty of his sin by the Perfect Saviour.
All things are vanity and done in vain that are done without God according to Ecclesiastes. This was the testimony of an elderly and regretful King Solomon. Even though he was the wealthiest and most powerful man of his time, he concluded that whole duty of man is to “Fear God, and keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13).”
The Christian must sacrifice his delights and desires to the blood that Christ spilled for him. He has become a new Creature and must put away the old nature and desire (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is to be the desire of a Christian to set his “affection on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2).”
Displaying of His Love
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
The represents the crown of humiliation Christ bore for sinful men. His hands and feet represent the suffering He agonized in the stead of the world that rejected him. His blood and tears evidenced the sorrow for a lost world that mingled with the everlasting love. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).” That love is a love that no other man would show.
Not many would give their life for a righteous person and fewer still would give their life for just a good man (Romans 5:7). Christ, however, gave his life to bring a lost and dying world eternal life. A world that hated Christ, He gave not only his life and breath for (John 15:18), but also gave up his throne in Heaven (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Giving the Perfect Sacrifice
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
How beautiful and dutiful will a Christian find this last verse. All that a Christian could ever offer, even if it were the world and all the visible and invisible realms that were in his possession, would be too small of an offering to lay at the Saviour’s feet. The Saviour’s love, that man could not find elsewhere, does not just ask, but demands something of the Christian.
This love demands the Christian to take up his Cross daily and follow Christ (Luke 9:23). There, the Christian sees there is to be a denial of self and that his reasonable service to give himself to the Lord as a living sacrifice. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36)”
All Scripture is taken from the Authorized Version of the Bible
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