What is it like when a person comes out of legalistic religion and into grace?
When a person comes out of legalistic religion and into grace, it is thrilling and liberating, like a bird freed from a cage. The heavy pressure of having to do this and that is gone, replaced by freedom. They eagerly study Scripture, see new truths, and cannot get over it.
Les explains that the whole thrilling part is seen in a young man in the television audience from a distant state who came out of one of these binding religions. He was so thrilled, called time after time, kept seeing another truth, and could not get over it. He had been blinded for so long, then began his own Bible study—by his third study he could not wait until tonight. Les says that when you come out from underneath the pressure of a religion of legalism—having to do this and that—and step into the freedom of grace, it is just like setting a bird free out of its cage. He parallels this with Paul, who had been weighed down with Judaism and its demands but was set free, having three years to shed himself of all that and absorb the things he brings out in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.