Trexi Articulates False Humanity

Unintentionally, Anti-D articulates the entrenched system of sin

Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure;
I am clean and without sin"? (Proverbs 20:9)

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)

Designer of Anti-D, Jacob Shamberg, explains that "the motifs on the Anti-D Trexi are testaments to our over-medicated, desensitized society. Where all of human vitality, has been willfully reduced to a green cesspool of numbness."

But it is more than over-medication and desensitisation that dehumanises us; it is ultimately sin that makes us less human.

When we are hurt or cheated by someone else, friends and family comfort us saying,"That's life; that's what humans are like."

But that's not what humans are like; it's what non-humans are like.

For in the beginning, humans were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). We were not designed as mere mammals. Rather, we uniquely had the role and had the ability to reflect God, represent God and relate to God.

When we rebelled (sinned) against God however, the image of God in us was corrupted. Because we did not and do not live with God as our Lord, we are filled with all kinds of evil: anger, jealousy, rage, malice, greed, sloth, deceit, strife, slander, gossip, insolence, arrogance, boastfulness, senselessness, faithlessness, ruthlessness... And as Proverbs so rightly points out, which among us can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"(Proverbs 20:9)? We all know the filthy petty selfishness of our own hearts.

None can claim perfect goodness. None, that is, but Jesus Christ. Walking on earth in the flesh like us, Jesus was the perfect human being who, alone, was the perfect representation of God, the perfect image of God (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3).

By his perfect life and substitutionary death in our place, and resurrection from the dead, he made it possible for us to be restored to our true humanity, to be truly human.

Those who trust in Jesus are given the ability to break out of their filthy petty selfish sinful selves and be gradually transformed into Jesus' likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18), that is true humanity.

One day, when Christ comes again, the transformation process will be complete for those who believe in him. Then, we shall attain perfect humanity again (1 John 3:2; 1 Corinthians 15:49), not by our own self-improvement works but by the power and grace of God alone.