You know that you’re saved because salvation begins to appear in your life. You desire new and different things. The law of God that you regarded as an enemy and an irritation becomes a friend, and you want to keep it. You want to please Christ rather than let Him down. All of these are very simple things. You begin to love the people who love the Lord Jesus.
These are the kinds of things that 1 John speaks about. A good exercise would be to go to 1 John, which speaks about our relationship to Christ, our new relationship to sin (we no longer love it, but instead hate it), and our new relationship to God’s people. We begin to love God’s people and to want to be with them.
This transcript is from a live Ask Ligonier event with Sinclair Ferguson and has been lightly edited for readability. To ask Ligonier a biblical or theological question, email ask@ligonier.org or message us on Facebook or Twitter.
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Sinclair Ferguson
Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow, vice-chairman of Ligonier Ministries, and Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is featured teacher for several Ligonier teaching series, including Union with Christ. He is author of many books, including The Whole Christ, Maturity, and Devoted to God's Church. Dr. Ferguson is also host of the podcast Things Unseen.