Isaac Watts was born in 1674, the son of a nonconformist minister in Southampton. He came of age in an England that had just banned hymn-singing in church; the Psalms were the only songs allowed in Reformed worship.
Watts had a heretical idea: what if the Gospel itself could be sung? He began writing original hymns, and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross became his masterpiece. It is a meditation on the crucifixion done not in the medieval style of passion plays, but with the cool eye of a Reformed theologian watching an execution.
The hymn refuses sentiment. It watches the cross and watches pride die. Disdain, pride, loss, all sown to gain. That last verse, with its reversal of all earthly value, was revolutionary for its time and remains devastating: "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."