But, Ray, did you battle legalism as a young believer?

No, not at all. I'll tell you why.

When I first got a grip of the biblical use of the law,

and really understood it, I thought,

I'm going to teach this, and I'm going to be separated as a legalist

for almost certain, and the exact opposite happened, much my delight.

But the law used lawfully actually destroys legalism,

and what I mean by that is a few take a, an unsafe person

through the law and show him that lust is adultery, hatred is murder,

that God is absolutely holy, a lying lips, an abomination of the Lord.

You show him that nothing in him commends him to God.

Absolutely nothing.

All he gets is wrath.

The only thing God owes him is justice, and that's terrifying.

He's the one that flees to Christ, and understands he is saved by grace and grace alone,

because the law has shown him.

That gap that he's trying to jump is ten times the worth of the Grand Canyon.

So he's not the one that's liable to fall into the touch-not, taste-not,

handle-not, category that my works command me to God.

Those who come to Christ without that knowledge that sin is exceedingly sinful,

they're the ones that are liable to think that the clothes they wear,

what they eat, what they touch.

...