Thursday, March 28, 2024

WHAT'S GOOD FOR DISMUS; GOOD FOR YOU

The repentant thief was saved, was he not? He was in Paradise that day along with Jesus, not in the flesh, but in Spirit for both of them. There is one Lord and one salvation. There is one Way to be saved, so what was good for the thief is what works for any malefactor, should it not?

Many disagree on what it takes to be saved, and even when the moment of salvation is. To sort things out, salvation must be considered firstly; Jesus said to the repentant sinner (named Dismus according to history), “Today shall you be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). What did the thief do to deserve Paradise? Nothing; it is by grace that you and he are saved’ “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Ephes 2:8)

Dismus received a gift from Jesus even though he did not deserve reprieve. He never pleaded innocent nor made any excuses. Dismus was guilty as charged and trusted Jesus to judge him. So, the first thing toward salvation is admission of guiltiness. To admit wrongdoing requires nothing but humility, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Since everyone has sinned, what is the big deal about confessing your own sins? Are you a god or something and without sin? Obviously not!

Children and immature adults make excuses for their actions. We… none of us, have an excuse for our wrongdoings (Rom 1:20). We sin just because we exist. Our very existence infringes on God’s a priori Existence. To put it simply, we cannot see God, but we infringe upon His space.

The best example of that is that Jesus died so that we need not. The crucifixion was mankind infringing the space of God. We should not have been there, we were, but He took our place. If you and I had been crucified for our own sins, that would have been an infringement on God’s place to do that.

So, Dismus never made any excuses nor made any defense for his innocence; he was guilty as charged. Jesus looked at Dismus, knew that He was guilty and did something remarkable; the sins of Dismus were not only forgotten, but Jesus took Dismus’s sins upon Himself. That is how Dismus infringed upon Jesus. Sin is infringement, better known as ‘trespassing.’

The Cross is the symbol of the Tree of Life, and the way to it is guarded (Gen 3:24). Dismus could not go there himself, so Jesus went there for him. No longer was Dismus trespassing but authorized to go there. Where is the Tree of Life? Paradise.

John wrote the words of God, “To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Rev 2:7). What did Dismus overcome? The world. He could have made excuses, perhaps, Sorry, Jesus; I was born this way. He did not do that. He looked at Jesus and knew that Jesus had the power to bare him again (John 3:16).

Here, we need to talk about love. Dismus probably did not love Jesus in an emotional sense; he seemed to be empathetic because he figured that Jesus was innocent and was paying the price for Dismus’s own sins. As such, Dismus had goodwill for Jesus; perhaps that Jesus would go to Paradise or escape punishment. Rather than worry about himself, his thoughts were on the unfair agony of Jesus.

Dismus, although dangerous to Judea, was humane to Jesus. He had just enough of the Image of God in Him (grace) that he worried about the condition of Jesus more so than himself. That is ‘goodwill’ and that is essentially the meaning of agape-type love of scripture.

The instant that Dismus believed that Jesus was indeed God and trusted Him for His future was the moment that something drastic happened within his person — Jesus got into him. We don’t understand how, but Jesus sorted it out for us when he said to, “Marvel not; you must be born again” (John 3:7).

Nicodemus thought of rebirth as entering the womb of the mother again. Not so! It is God reimaging sinners. In the beginning, “God created man in his own Image, in the Image of God created He him” (Gen 1:27). Dismus was a ‘mutant’ version of the first man; time and sin had taken its toll. He was a sinner the moment he was born. Like King David, Dismus was “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5) — depravity.

God breathed life into Adam to make him, not God, but like God (Gen 2:7). God took the material that He had and breathed — His ‘air’ — from Himself into Adam.

That Image is Selem in the Hebrew — literally a ‘Shadow’ of God but interpreted to be a ‘Phantom.’

I submit that the Phantom of God that God breathed into Adam was the same ‘Phantom’ that He breathed into Dismus. The moment that Jesus breathed His last, He gave up the Ghost (Mark 15:37). I submit that God (Jesus) emanated the Holy Spirit that was in His ‘Cup’ (soul) and breathed it into the soul of Dismus. The mechanism for rebirth is very well explained by the Holy Ghost leaving Jesus and accompanying Dismus to Paradise.

Jesus had said to Dismus, “Today shall you be with Me in Paradise.” The day was about over, and it would be the Sabbath in a few minutes as dusk set in. Jesus in Person never went anywhere, but in Spirit, Jesus was gone. He was in Dismus and entering Paradise the moment that Dismus’s soul was released.

That should answer many questions. Jesus did not save Dismus until Dismus died. Dismus was a believer to the end, and what he had believed all his life was inconsequential. As Jesus promoted with his parable, the one that came to the work last got the same pay as those who had been there all day. Just as in the parable, it was not works that counted but the generosity of the master.  

What did Jesus save? He saved, not the flesh of the man, but the soul. It was not just the mind of Dismus that was saved, but his soul. He was not just saved from sin, but saved from judgment by God, “Fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mat 10:28), therein limiting Satan’s ability for only the destruction of the body. In other words, salvation is not of the mind, of the will, nor for the requirement for good works; it is the soul that is saved.

Why was Dismus saved and where was he taken? He was taken immediately to Paradise in the realm of heaven. The reason and timing that Dismus was saved was explained quite well, better than I can, in Paul’s letter to Peter: 

Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. (1 Pet 1:8-10)

 Dismus loved God although it was before he saw God. Dismus believed without seeing. He was granted clemency before God showed Himself with the giving up of the Holy Ghost. Jesus, to him, was the evidence that was required that God is real, and with that belief (cognition) rebirth began, but it was completed at the end of his faith. Dismus did not quit believing but endured his cross to the end, trusting that Jesus would take him where He said He would!

Dismus had goodwill for Jesus. If Jesus’s soul could not escape to Paradise, then neither could his! He desired that Jesus no longer suffer, so that the voyage could begin.

When Jesus gave up the Ghost, the Ghost went into Dismus, and it was him that was full of glory. The Holy Spirit of Jesus went to Paradise in the soul of Dismus, taking him not only to safety but to a safe haven.

Before Jesus could enter Dismus, his soul required emptying. Jesus took the demonic spirit within Dismus to Hell along with his sin with Satan cast there as well, to wit: “When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” (Ephes 4:8-9). Without proof, I believe that Jesus in the form of the Holy Spirit descended to Hell before He ascended in Spirit tom Paradise. Dismus was full of glory, meaning that he was filled with the Spirit that had just vacated Jesus.

Death was the end of the faith of Dismus. He was dead and dead men do not think. Faith is a thought process — mental work — not dynamic work. Paul added to that, “even the salvation of your souls.” It should be clear that salvation comes after the body dies, and the period between the beginning of faith — rebirth — and the reward of faith (death as the gain according to Paul), is an interval of safety so long as the “babe in Christ” remains sober and vigilant (1 Tim 3:2).

Paul ends that passage by acknowledging that it was not by the works of Dismus, but that grace came into him. That ‘grace’ was when the Holy Ghost — the Virtue leaving Jesus — left the Body of Jesus and came into the soul of Dismus.

I believe that these explanations not only explain the state (salvation) and timing, but the mechanism (Dynamis; “virtue”) of Jesus as well.

Virtue left Jesus to make Dismus whole. What was Dismus missing that made him an incomplete, inglorious man? The Invisible Image of God within his person. Jesus was missing, and when Jesus was glorified — released from His Body (John 7:39), He glorified the ‘Phantom’ of Dismus that was within him.

You have the right to disagree but do take the time to consider the meaning of scripture. I hope that I am saved right now! That would be foolish not to wish that, but the Devil is out to get me still, so it makes sense that, providing that I wear it, God has provided for me the ‘Garment of Adam’ (Gen 3:17) for safety against the fiery darts of the Wicked One.

                                                        PICTURE CREDIT; Suzie Shultz


 

 

 

 

 

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