When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Standing before "the wondrous cross / on which the Prince of glory died," the singer does arithmetic: "my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride." The accounting language is Paul's in Philippians 3:7, where what once counted as gain is reckoned as loss for Christ.

The second verse sharpens it into a refusal, "Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God," a close echo of Galatians 6:14. Whatever once charmed the singer most is handed over: "I sacrifice them to His blood." The third verse looks at the crucifixion itself, where "sorrow and love flow mingled down" from head, hands and feet, and asks whether anywhere else "thorns compose so rich a crown."

The final verse sets a price on the response and finds nothing equal to it. "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small," so the only fitting gift is the singer's own self: "love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all." That conclusion lines up with Romans 12:1's call to present yourself as a living sacrifice. The Fountainview Academy version keeps all four verses.