This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
One missed step can make you stumble,
you set yourself up for a fall.
You punish yourself for each failure,
dogma beat out alcohol.
When all of your principles were fashioned,
you thought that your new rules made you new.
But maybe those X’s on your hands,
are what’s killing you.
chorus
The Cross of Saint Andrew,
never meant to take His place.
The Cross of Saint Andrew,
echoes of His grace.
When Saint Andrew knew the measure,
he knew the cost of sacrifice,
he left all that he knew behind him,
great things come at such great price.
But all of this never brought the answers,
obedience comes with controversy,
what changed him changes me today,
Christ has mercy.
bridge
All your sins can be forgiven,
all of this was always free.
Jesus loves without condition,
this is what freedom means to me.
Nihil ergo nunc damnationis est
his qui sunt in Christo Iesu qui non
secundum carnem ambulant.
(There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:1,2)
you set yourself up for a fall.
You punish yourself for each failure,
dogma beat out alcohol.
When all of your principles were fashioned,
you thought that your new rules made you new.
But maybe those X’s on your hands,
are what’s killing you.
chorus
The Cross of Saint Andrew,
never meant to take His place.
The Cross of Saint Andrew,
echoes of His grace.
When Saint Andrew knew the measure,
he knew the cost of sacrifice,
he left all that he knew behind him,
great things come at such great price.
But all of this never brought the answers,
obedience comes with controversy,
what changed him changes me today,
Christ has mercy.
bridge
All your sins can be forgiven,
all of this was always free.
Jesus loves without condition,
this is what freedom means to me.
Nihil ergo nunc damnationis est
his qui sunt in Christo Iesu qui non
secundum carnem ambulant.
(There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in
Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:1,2)
Lyrics submitted by mollyxbiscuit
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Okay, I know this song is old, but I have to say this because some of these explanations are reaching for things far afield of what this song is clearly about.
This is a song about the shortcomings of the straight edge movement. Period. Straight edge kids used to draw Xs on their hands (which is also the shape of the Cross of St Andrew). This was meant to signal to people at concerts and clubs that they weren't interested in any drugs or alcohol.
Reese's point here is that this one ideology and identity can't replace Christ's message of grace. If your identity is all about some rules and you break them, you have nothing. By contrast, Christ will forgive anything you've done. This can be seen as a broader commentary on the problems of legalism in Christianity in general, but it was written in a very specific time and is clearly about straight edge to people who went to a lot of concerts at the time.