"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;" (Hebrews 2:3 KJV)
"Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad - for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people's affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name!" (1 Peter 4:12-16 NLT)
For those who might not understand the whole escape thing, it involves a lack of surrender, which is that part of our salvation which makes us His, meaning that this salvation is not really ours, it belongs to the Lord! Jesus is Jehovah; with basically means, He is Salvation! Therefore, this is something that He brings and makes new; He establishes it, and He completes it!
By the way, the sin is something that has been washed away, and left here to be absorbed by the earth; in other words, your sinful acts of the past, or future, will play out in results of punishment towards your flesh, which do not harm your soul and your justification with God; but they can cause you to be torn and discouraged, just knowing that there are circumstances for the bad things you have done.
Not that it makes any difference, because the things which happen here on earth, stay here on earth as the saying goes! We don't get to take anything with us, because the new body will be totally pure, without any baggage, whatsoever! Thanks be to the LORD for making us new.
This might be one of those incidents where the gang to starting to disclose themselves; as all three of these men did not have did not have a relationship with the Lord, as the disciples had. Paul did not actually meet Jesus until he was on the road to Damascus; Luke had not been accustomed to the Lord's ministry until he was taken in by Paul, in Greece; and Mark had barely started to follow Jesus, when Jesus was arrested in the Garden; and yes, Mark was the young man wrapped in the sheet, who grabbed hold of Jesus' legs, as they took Him away; only to run away naked after his sheet came off.
Not that it makes a whole lot of difference, but from my point of view, spending time in jail as a new believer, you start sharing with two brothers, and you end up with Jesus in the mix; making for quite the conversation, that can go on for hours and hours, even days of sharing about this great salvation we have been given; because it never ends...
"We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy." (1 John 1:1-4 NLT)
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