Blake Long

My family went to a showing of The Lorax at our local theater the other day. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t an entertaining movie, mainly because Ed Helms (Andy on “The Office”) plays the Once-ler and Rob Riggle—who I think is hilarious—is Aloysius O-Hare (the bad guy).

One of the most popular songs in the movie is when the Once-ler breaks his promise to the Lorax by cutting down more trees. Instead of apologizing, the Once-ler double downs and cuts down even more trees—he then breaks into song.

The crux of the song—and this blog—are the lyrics below:

How ba-a-a-ad can I be?
I’m just doing what comes naturally
How ba-a-a-ad can I be?
I’m just following my destiny
How ba-a-a-ad can I be?
I’m just doing what comes naturally
How ba-a-a-ad can I be?
How bad can I possibly be?

Ignoring the fact that the song will get stuck in your head, this chorus immediately brings to mind how man feels about himself. How bad can I be? we say, I’m just doing what comes naturally! This is the mantra of mankind.

People downplay their bad behavior, to put it lightly, by saying it’s just what comes naturally. Of course, that is the problem—our bad decisions come naturally. The Bible certainly doesn’t downplay the state of natural man’s heart. It’s abysmal. Here are just three examples:

• “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it” (Jer. 17:9)?
• “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5).
• “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one’” (Rom. 3:10-12).

How bad can we be? Pretty awful; desperately wicked; simply deplorable. I know, I know—I’m just piling on here; where’s the positivity? Where are the “good vibes” and “positive affirmations”? Good vibes and positive affirmations will eventually send you straight to Hell for believing in them over what the Bible teaches.

We have to be honest with ourselves and understand what Scripture affirms about our natural state. We aren’t basically good but mess up every once in a while. We aren’t generally okay but just have bad moments. No—we must affirm what the Bible teaches: we are wicked.

And it’s totally okay to afffirm that, friend.

As a matter of fact, you cannot see Christ as beautiful until you come to grips with who you are in your natural, fallen state. If we believe we’re more or less good, Christ’s atonement was more or less pointless.

Understanding how wicked we were before Christ magnifies His sacrifice all the more, because Jesus didn’t die for good people—He died for His enemies (Rom. 5:10)! There is absolutely no shame in admitting you were a wretch before Christ. We must proclaim, along with John Newton, that God saved a wretch like me!

So, yes, you are a wicked sinner. You still sin egregiously even as a Christian. But God saves wicked sinners like you and me. Amen!

I’ll let Charles Spurgeon close this blog:

The first link between my soul and Christ is, not my goodness, but my badness; not my merit, but my misery; not my standing, but my falling; not my riches, but my need. He comes to visit His people, yet not to admire their beauties, but to remove their deformities; not to reward their virtues, but to forgive their sins.