The hymn centers on the speaker’s realization that they need to turn around their degraded life. They label themselves a “wretch” (Line 2), and they’re looking for change. In the poem, God—specifically, the Christian God—engenders radical change. The speaker realizes the “precious” (Line 7) value of God’s grace immediately, in “the hour [they] first believed” (Line 8). The speaker chronicles the vast difference between their pre- and post-transformational selves through a series of metaphors: “I once was lost, but now am found, / was blind, but now I see” (Lines 3-4). The juxtaposition reinforces the speaker’s successful quest for transformation. They have gone from feeling unstable to inhabiting a sturdy existence; their lack of perspective has vanished, and a new vantage point—the foresight supplied by God—takes over. Thus, the speaker feels “saved” (Line 2). God has pulled the speaker away from their harmful path and set them in a rewarding direction. 

This theme works within a non-denominational Christian context, summoning the nonspecific Christian belief in God’s grace rather than detailing a specifically Anglican variant on faith. In the general drive to feel different or revamp life, God is a symbol of a positive, all-consuming force. The speaker relents and gives themselves to God’s irrepressible power, which, in turn, changes the speaker for their benefit.