The Greatness and Glory of the Legal Promise
Introduction: The Promise of Life and the Universal Longing for It
Life and love are the twin longings of humanity, woven into the fabric of creation by the God who made us for covenantal fellowship with Himself. These desires, rooted in the promise of life first held out in the covenant of works, reflect God’s call for humanity to flourish in joyful communion with Him. As Genesis 1:28 declares:
“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.’”
This blessing revealed God’s desire for humanity to live in joyful communion with Him, experiencing the fullness of life and love in His presence. It sets the stage for the covenant of works, which offered eternal life through obedience, symbolized by the Tree of Life in the Garden.
Even after the fall, the longings for life and love persist. However, sin has twisted these desires, severing humanity from the God of life and love and rendering its pursuits futile and fractured. Culture, relationships, and personal ambitions are all marked by the desperate but misguided search for life and love apart from God.
This essay explores the greatness and glory of the legal promise and its enduring relevance in shaping these universal longings. By examining the covenant of works, we can better understand how the legal promise reveals the beauty of God’s holiness, the tragedy of humanity’s sin, and the hope of the gospel promise that fulfills both life and love in Christ.
Through four parts, this essay will first consider the glory of the legal promise in creation, then the longing for life and love after the fall, the gospel promise as the fulfillment of these longings, and finally, the reality of life and love today under the legal promise. By recovering the greatness of the legal promise, we are led to hunger for the gospel promise, where eternal life and perfect love are freely given in Christ.
Part 1: The Glory of the Legal Promise in Creation
The Covenant of Life and Love in the Garden
At the heart of creation lies a breathtakingly gracious promise: the legal promise of life and love. Genesis 2:16–17 records God’s command to Adam:
“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
While this verse is often remembered for its prohibition, it also contains the extraordinary promise of life. Adam was called to obedience, not in isolation but within the abundance of a world teeming with beauty, joy, and God’s provision. Genesis 2:9 highlights this abundance:
“And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
The Tree of Life symbolized God’s covenantal offer of eternal life, representing the glorious promise of flourishing in covenantal fellowship with Him. This life was not static or merely biological but dynamic, relational, and overflowing with joy.
Geerhardus Vos explains that the covenant of works offered life in its highest sense—a life of confirmed fellowship with God, continually growing in knowledge and enjoyment of Him (Biblical Theology, p. 38). This covenantal relationship was a reflection of God’s character as the source of all life and love.
Faith, Love, and the Legal Promise
The legal promise was not a mechanical system of works and rewards but a deeply relational covenant, calling Adam to trust and love the God who created him. Faith, expressed through obedience, was central to this relationship. Adam’s obedience was not rooted in self-reliance but in his trust in God’s goodness and His promise of life, symbolized by the Tree of Life.
This faith was not a detached belief but a deeply relational trust in the God who provided abundantly and walked with Adam in the Garden. It was a posture of joyful dependence, reflecting God’s covenantal love and care.
This principle—that life comes through faith—is foundational to covenantal relationships throughout Scripture. Habakkuk 2:4 declares:
“The righteous shall live by his faith.”
Though this verse later becomes central to the gospel promise, its original context underscores a covenantal truth that applies universally: life is always received through trusting in God’s Word. For Adam, this trust meant believing that obedience to God’s command would lead to the fullness of life and love in fellowship with Him. Faith was the posture through which Adam lived in joyful dependence on his Creator, expressing his love through obedience.
This connection between faith and life is reflected in the covenant’s relational structure. The legal promise was not simply a demand for compliance but an invitation to live in covenantal fellowship with the God of life and love. Faith was the means by which Adam would cling to God’s promise, trusting in His provision and delighting in His love.
The Goodness of the Legal Promise
The legal promise reflects the goodness, justice, and life-giving nature of God. It was rooted in God’s character as a Creator who desires life and flourishing for His creation. Genesis 1–2 reveals a world teeming with beauty, abundance, and relational harmony. God’s command in Genesis 2:16–17 does not disrupt this goodness; rather, it enhances it by inviting Adam to trust and love God through obedience.
Calvin underscores this point, emphasizing that God’s command was for Adam’s benefit:
“God did not restrict Adam from any good thing but only forbade what was harmful and would lead to death. This prohibition was to preserve life, not to diminish it” (Commentary on Genesis, 2:17).
The legal promise, therefore, is not merely a condition but an invitation into deeper communion with the God of life and love.
The Tree of Life and the Eschatological Hope
The Tree of Life, standing at the center of the Garden, symbolized the life and love held out to Adam under the legal promise. Vos describes the Tree of Life as a sign of eschatological hope, pointing beyond earthly existence to eternal life in unbroken fellowship with God (Biblical Theology, p. 35).
Adam’s probationary period under the legal promise was not an end in itself but a means to an eschatological goal—a life that transcended the earthly and temporal, grounded in the love and glory of God. The Tree of Life reflected this ultimate reality, reminding Adam of the abundant life and love that awaited him through obedience.
The Relational Glory of the Legal Promise
At its heart, the legal promise is relational. It is not simply about rules or conditions but about a covenantal relationship between the Creator and His image-bearers. Adam’s obedience was an expression of his love and trust in God, and God’s promise of life and love was an expression of His goodness and desire for fellowship with humanity.
Jack Miller often emphasized the relational nature of God’s covenants, describing the legal promise as a gracious invitation to live under the love and provision of the God of life. Far from being a burden, the legal promise was an opportunity to grow in joyful communion with the Creator.
Conclusion
The greatness of the legal promise lies in its gracious and covenantal offer of life and love. Far from being a burden, it was a beautiful invitation to eternal flourishing in fellowship with the Creator. Its glory reflects the goodness, holiness, and relational nature of God, who created humanity to thrive in His love and life. This relational beauty of the legal promise lays the foundation for understanding humanity’s longings and the tragedy of sin. It is here that the story of redemption begins to unfold.
This foundational covenant not only establishes humanity’s purpose but also provides the framework for understanding the universal longings for life and love that persist even after the fall. It is in the tragedy of sin that the greatness of the legal promise is most clearly seen, as it leaves humanity longing for the gospel promise, where these longings are fulfilled in Christ.
Part 2: The Longing for Life After the Fall
Introduction: The Longing for Life and Love Under Judgment and Mercy
When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they were not merely exiled from the Garden of Eden; they were severed from the covenantal relationship with the God of life and love. This separation disrupted the core of what it means to be human, leaving behind longings for life and love that persist as powerful forces within us. These desires are not passive memories of what was lost but active dynamics embedded in our very nature as image-bearers of God.
Humanity’s longings for life and love are deeply covenantal. They reflect the bond for which we were created, a binding relationship with the Creator who designed us to flourish in fellowship with Him. Sin dismembers this relationship, severing humanity from the God who is the source of life and love. The longings for life and love, now twisted by sin, do not simply remind us of what we have lost; they drive us, shaping our desires, actions, and pursuits, whether directed toward God or distorted toward idolatrous substitutes.
Yet God, in His holiness and mercy, does not abandon humanity. Even as He pronounces judgment on sin, He moves toward His rebellious creation with covenantal promises. This section explores how these longings persist and develop after the fall. From humanity’s exile from Eden and the guarded Tree of Life to Cain’s restless alienation, the Mosaic covenant, Hebrew poetry, and the prophets, these biblical narratives reveal both the futility of seeking life apart from God and the relentless mercy of the Creator who pursues humanity with His promises of life and love.
The Guarded Tree of Life: Separation, Mercy, and Longing
After Adam and Eve’s disobedience, God drove them out of the Garden of Eden and barred their access to the Tree of Life. Genesis 3:24 describes this decisive act:
“He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”
The Tree of Life, which symbolized the promise of eternal life in covenantal fellowship with God, was now inaccessible. This was no mere exile from a geographical location; it was a severing of humanity’s access to the source of life and love. The cherubim, standing with a flaming sword, represented the holiness of God and the impossibility of returning to His presence through human effort.
The exile from the Tree of Life magnifies the tragedy of sin. What was meant to nourish eternal life now stands as a reminder of humanity’s alienation. Yet this act of judgment also holds a profound note of mercy. By barring access to the Tree of Life, God ensured that Adam and Eve would not live eternally in their fallen state, alienated from Him.
Even in judgment, God moves toward His fallen creatures with promises of mercy. The guarded Tree of Life, though inaccessible, becomes a symbol of longing and hope. It points forward to the restoration of eternal life in Christ, the Last Adam, who will open the way back to God’s presence. This eschatological hope underpins humanity’s universal longings for life and love, preparing the way for the gospel promise. He speaks of the seed of the woman who will crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15), a foreshadowing of the Savior who will one day reopen the way to eternal life. This promise of mercy runs alongside the longings for life and love, pointing forward to their fulfillment in the covenant of grace.
The Legal Promise and Cain’s Alienation
The story of Cain in Genesis 4 vividly illustrates the distortion of life and love after the fall. Cain, driven by jealousy, murders his brother Abel, severing his relationship with both God and family. God confronts Cain and pronounces judgment:
“You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth” (Gen. 4:12).
This curse reflects Cain’s alienation from God, the source of life and love. His restlessness reveals the dismembering effects of sin, as he is left to wander, estranged from both the Creator and his community. Cut off from God, Cain seeks to secure life on his own terms. He builds a city (Gen. 4:17), striving for permanence and significance, yet his efforts are marked by futility and frustration.
Yet even in judgment, God’s mercy pursues Cain. Before Cain kills Abel, God warns him:
“Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it” (Gen. 4:7).
This warning reveals God’s active engagement with Cain, calling him to resist sin and pursue righteousness. Despite Cain’s rejection of this warning, God places a mark of protection on him after his sin, ensuring that no one would take vengeance upon him (Gen. 4:15). God’s interactions with Cain reveal both the futility of striving for life and love apart from Him and the unrelenting mercy of a Creator who does not abandon His wayward children.
The Legal Promise in the Mosaic Covenant: Life, Love, and God’s Pursuit
The Mosaic covenant reaffirms the longing for life and love under the legal promise. At Mount Sinai, God establishes His law with Israel, declaring:
“You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD” (Lev. 18:5).
This principle—“Do this and live”—restates the terms of the legal promise, emphasizing life through obedience to God’s commands. Yet the Mosaic covenant also reveals the relational dimension of the law, calling Israel to love God as the foundation of their obedience. The Shema, central to Israel’s worship, commands:
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5).
Here, the longing for life is inseparably tied to the longing for love. God’s law is not merely a set of rules but a pathway to flourishing in covenantal fellowship with Him. Obedience reflects trust in God’s goodness and is the proper expression of love.
However, the Mosaic covenant also reveals humanity’s inability to perfectly fulfill the law. The sacrificial system acknowledges Israel’s sin and points to the need for a greater provision. Calvin observes
“The law shows us the way to life, but our inability to walk it perfectly calls out for grace” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.7.3).
The Mosaic covenant reveals both the tragedy of sin and the mercy of God. In His pursuit of humanity, God provides the law to guide His people and the sacrificial system to point them to His ultimate provision in the covenant of grace.
The Legal Promise in Hebrew Poetry: A Cry for Life and Love
The longing for life and love under the legal promise finds poignant expression in Hebrew poetry. The Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes capture both the hope of flourishing in covenantal fellowship and the anguish of alienation from God.
Proverbs 3:1–2 affirms the connection between obedience and flourishing:
“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.”
Here, the legal promise is presented as a source of life and peace, both of which flow from obedience to God’s Word.
The Psalms reflect a longing for restored fellowship with God. Psalm 16:11 declares:
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
By contrast, Ecclesiastes laments the futility of life and love pursued apart from God. The Preacher writes:
“Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind” (Eccl. 2:11).
These texts highlight the tension of life under the legal promise: the longings for life and love persist, but sin renders their fulfillment unattainable apart from divine intervention.
Conclusion
The legal promise, though broken by sin, continues to shape humanity’s longings for life and love. From the exile from Eden and the guarded Tree of Life to Cain’s alienation and Israel’s covenant failures, these biblical narratives reveal the futility of striving for life and love apart from God. Yet, the greatness of the legal promise lies in its ability to expose humanity’s need for redemption, pointing forward to the gospel promise where life and love are fulfilled in Christ.
Part 3: The Gospel Promise as Fulfillment
Introduction: The Gospel and the Revelation of God’s Grace
The gospel promise fulfills the greatness and glory of the legal promise by answering humanity’s deepest longings for life and love in Christ. While sin blinds us to God’s holy love and mercy, leaving us striving for life and love apart from Him, God, in His abundant grace, pursues humanity and reveals Himself in the gospel. The problem has never been with God or His law but with humanity’s rebellion, blindness, and unbelief.
From the eternal covenant of redemption revealed in John 17 to the first gospel promise in Genesis 3:15, God’s mercy is evident in His covenantal dealings with humanity. The gospel promise reaches its fullness in Christ, the Last Adam, who secures eternal life and love through His perfect obedience, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection. In Him, the universal longings for life and love are satisfied, restoring humanity to covenantal fellowship with the Triune God.
The Last Adam: Fulfillment in Christ
The fullness of the gospel promise is revealed in the work of the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, who fulfills the legal promise and brings to completion God’s covenantal purposes. Sent by the Father, Christ entered the world as true God and true man, “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal. 4:4–5). Unlike Adam, who disobeyed in the Garden of Eden—a place teeming with life, love, and abundance—Christ obeyed in the wilderness, a barren and parched place of hunger, thirst, and death.
In Matthew 4:1–11, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. For forty days, He endured hunger and thirst, facing temptations that echo the failure of Adam in the Garden. Satan begins by questioning Jesus’s identity:
“If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” (Matt. 4:3).
Where Adam doubted God’s Word in a Garden overflowing with provision, Jesus trusts His Father and replies:
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4, quoting Deut. 8:3).
Satan then offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, appealing to humanity’s longing for life and power. Yet Jesus rejects the shortcut to glory, saying:
“You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve” (Matt. 4:10, quoting Deut. 6:13).
This contrast between Adam and Christ is profound. While Adam fell in a pristine Garden, surrounded by life and love, Jesus, the Son of God, endured temptation in a wilderness of death and desolation. He trusted His Father’s Word and obeyed perfectly, resisting the very temptations that had led Adam and Eve into sin.
Through His perfect obedience, Christ fulfills the legal promise, securing eternal life for His people and restoring the covenantal relationship severed by sin.
Saving Faith: The Gift of Grace
The gospel promise addresses not only humanity’s sin but also the death of faith in God. In the Garden, Adam and Eve trusted God’s Word, but when they rebelled, faith in God as its object died. It was replaced by faith in man—faith in self, creation, or idols. Jeremiah 17:5 exposes the futility of this misplaced faith:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.”
Sin blinds humanity to God’s holiness and mercy, leaving us incapable of trusting Him. Faith, as the response of trust and dependence on God, must be resurrected as a gift of grace. This truth is proclaimed throughout Scripture. Ephesians 2:4–5 declares:
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Faith does not arise from within humanity; it is given by God as part of the new life in Christ. Paul continues in Ephesians 2:8–9:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Saving faith is not a mere intellectual belief or a generic optimism. It is a Spirit-wrought gift, centered entirely on Christ as its object. Without God’s sovereign grace, saving faith would be impossible.
The Westminster Confession of Faith highlights this dependence:
“The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts” (WCF 14.1).
The Heidelberg Catechism emphasizes this further:
“True faith is not only a sure knowledge, whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word, but also a firm confidence, which the Holy Ghost works in my heart, that not only to others, but to me also, remission of sin, everlasting righteousness, and salvation are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 21).
The Belgic Confession echoes this truth, stating:
“We believe that this true faith, being wrought in man by the hearing of the Word of God and the operation of the Holy Spirit, regenerates him and makes him a new man” (Belgic Confession, Article 24).
The gospel promise not only restores faith but resurrects it, transforming dead hearts into living ones that trust in God through Christ. Saving faith is the means by which sinners receive Christ’s perfect righteousness, overcoming the rebellion and idolatry that sin has wrought.
Adoptive Sonship: Fulfilled in Christ
The gospel promise elevates humanity’s relationship with God from provisional to eternal sonship. Under the legal promise, Adam was called the “son of God” (Luke 3:38), reflecting his status as the image-bearer of God. Similarly, Israel was described as God’s “firstborn son” (Exod. 4:22), signifying their covenantal relationship with Him.
The gospel promise offers something far greater: adoptive sonship through union with Christ, the eternal Son of God. Adoption is not merely a legal status; it is a relational reality. Through Christ, believers are welcomed into the family of God, able to cry out, “Abba, Father!” (Gal. 4:6). This new identity as sons and daughters replaces the alienation of sin with the intimacy of covenantal love. Paul writes in Galatians 4:4–7:
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
In the gospel, believers are no longer slaves to sin or servants under a covenant of works but sons and daughters of God, loved and secure in Christ.
The Tree of Life in Christ
In the gospel promise, Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, becomes the Tree of Life for His people. While Adam was barred from the Tree of Life in the Garden, Jesus comes as the fulfillment of that promise, shedding His own blood to make a way for humanity to receive eternal life.
The cross becomes the place where the sword of death, which guarded the Tree of Life, falls on Christ Himself. He willingly takes the penalty of sin upon Himself, enduring separation from God so that His people might be restored to life and love. As Isaiah 53:5 declares:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
In His resurrection, Christ triumphs over sin and death, opening the way to the Tree of Life for all who believe in Him. Revelation 22:1–2 captures the glorious fulfillment of this promise:
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Through Christ, the Tree of Life is no longer guarded but freely available to those redeemed by His blood. This fulfillment points to a future of eternal life and love in the presence of God, where the longings of humanity will be fully satisfied.
The Nowness of the Gospel Promise
The gospel promise is not only a future hope but a present reality. In Christ, believers experience the beginnings of eternal life now, as the Spirit applies the benefits of Christ’s work and transforms them into His likeness. Jesus emphasizes this in John 5:24:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
This passing from death to life is a present reality for those united to Christ. Through the Spirit, believers are re-membered into the covenantal relationship with God, restored to life and love.
The gospel transforms every aspect of life, reorienting longings for life and love toward God and away from idols. Calvin describes this dynamic powerfully:
“Christ is full of grace and truth, not for Himself, but that He may pour them out upon His members. This fullness is inexhaustible and flows to us perpetually. For, if we consider how great is the poverty and emptiness of all men, we will more fully understand that we have in Christ the wealth of all things” (Commentary on John, 1:16).
This fullness gives believers a foretaste of the eternal life to come while empowering them to live in covenantal fellowship with God today. The gospel promise is not just for the future but for the present, offering life and love now through union with Christ.
Conclusion: The Hunger for More
The gospel promise fulfills the greatness and glory of the legal promise by restoring covenantal fellowship with God in Christ. Jesus Christ, the Tree of Life, has come to His people, shedding His blood to open the way to eternal life and love. The gospel promise does not abolish the legal promise but fulfills it, offering the life and love that the legal promise reveals yet humanity could not attain. Yet, even as the gospel satisfies humanity’s deepest longings, it leaves us yearning for the full consummation of its promise in the age to come.
Part 4 will explore how the longing for life and love continues to shape our lives today under the legal promise, pointing us to Christ as the only One who can truly satisfy.
Part 4: Life Now Under the Legal Promise
Introduction: The Universal Longings for Life and Love
The longings for life and love are embedded in every human heart. They reflect the beauty of God’s design and humanity’s covenantal purpose: to flourish in eternal fellowship with the Creator who is the source of life and love. These desires, while good, have been distorted by sin. Severed from God, humanity pursues life and love on its own terms, creating idols that cannot satisfy.
Even in this brokenness, the legal promise continues to reveal both the beauty of our created purpose and the futility of seeking life apart from the Creator.
Affirming the Beauty of Longing for Life and Love
The longing for life and love reflects the image of God in us. These desires are beautiful because they point to our covenantal design: we were created to flourish in eternal fellowship with the God of life and love. Jack Miller begins his A New Life booklet with this affirmation:
“A loving God sent His Son Jesus into the world to bring you a new and abundant life.”
This statement underscores the goodness of the longing for life and love, which drives human creativity, relationships, and the search for purpose. The tragedy of sin is not that we long for life and love but that we pursue them apart from the God who is their source.
The Promises of Life and Love: A Downstream and Upstream Dynamic
The promises of life and love in the legal and gospel promises are unchanging, rooted in God’s sovereign purposes from creation to redemption. These promises speak to every facet of human existence—culture, politics, relationships, and personal pursuits—because they address the foundational longings embedded in every heart. While these longings are universal, their misdirection has far-reaching consequences, shaping and distorting entire societies and institutions.
Some argue that politics is downstream from culture, but the legal and gospel promises flow both downstream and upstream. They direct the aspirations of culture and politics (downstream), while also exposing their futility and pointing humanity back to the God of life and love (upstream).
This dynamic explains why people are so raw and angry in today’s polarized age. The longings for life and love—rooted in the legal promise—permeate human culture and politics. Yet, when these longings are sought apart from God, they lead to division, distrust, and rage. Institutions, movements, and ideologies cannot fulfill these desires, but they reflect the greatness of the legal promise and its unchanging call to life and love under God’s terms.
The Danger of Mixing the Legal and Gospel Promises
The legal promise—“Do this and live”—is distinct from the gospel promise—“Believe in Christ and live.” These two promises operate on different covenantal principles, but both reflect God’s goodness and holiness. The covenant of works in the Garden was not an oppressive burden but a gracious arrangement in which Adam, living in a world teeming with life, love, and joy, was called to trust and obey God’s Word. The command not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was both simple and relational, rooted in God’s desire for humanity to flourish in fellowship with Him.
Even after the Fall, God’s commands remain an expression of His holy love. He warns Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” (Gen. 4:7). At Sinai, God gives His people the Ten Commandments—not as an impossible weight but as a revelation of His character and the pathway to life. The problem is not with God’s law but with humanity’s sinful rejection of it. As Paul writes:
“The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Rom. 7:12).
When the legal and gospel promises are conflated, the clarity of God’s covenantal dealings is lost. The legal promise, designed to show the beauty of God’s holiness and humanity’s need for redemption, becomes a source of despair when it is mistaken as the means of salvation. Conversely, the gospel promise, which freely offers life through faith in Christ, is diminished when it is reduced to a call for human effort or covenantal faithfulness. This mixing of law and gospel obscures the richness of both, leaving people confused about the way of life and salvation.
The Distortion of Longing: A Bad Record, Bad Heart, and Bad Master
The legal promise itself is holy, righteous, and good, reflecting the justice and love of God. Yet, under the weight of sin, humanity’s response to this promise becomes twisted, leading to a cascade of self-centered pursuits.
Under the weight of the legal promise, humanity’s pursuits of life and love become self-centered rather than God-centered. This self-centeredness leaves humanity with three devastating consequences:
1. A Bad Record: Sin separates us from God, leaving us guilty and condemned under the law. Romans 3:23 declares: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This bad record produces guilt and shame, driving people to seek worth and validation apart from God.
2. A Bad Heart: Sin corrupts the core of our being. Jeremiah 17:9 says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Our desires, once oriented toward God, become twisted and disordered, leading us to love what cannot satisfy.
3. A Bad Master: Sin enslaves us to idols, whether they are relationships, achievements, or material possessions. Jesus warns in John 8:34: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” These false masters promise life and love but ultimately deepen our emptiness and alienation from God.
The Goodness of Guilt and Shame
Modern society often rejects guilt and shame, portraying them as harmful constructs that inhibit self-expression and fulfillment. Yet, guilt and shame are not obstacles to be dismissed; they are vital signals of humanity’s estrangement from God. They reveal the weight of a bad record, a bad heart, and a bad master under the legal promise.
At the same time, many people today experience guilt and shame as a floating sense of unease with no clear source or resolution. Without categories like sin, guilt, and shame to anchor this pain, people live as though their consciences are raw and exposed, like skinless wounds. This rawness leads to defensiveness, hypersensitivity, and frustration, because while something feels deeply wrong, there is no framework to explain what it is. Yet this very rawness, when properly understood, can lead us to the healing and wholeness found in Christ, who tenderly restores what sin has broken.
The church, too, must acknowledge its role in this confusion. Pastors and leaders have not always used the law rightly, as Paul warns in 1 Timothy 1:8. When the law is wielded harshly or self-righteously, it can deepen wounds, leaving people to reject not only the misuse but also the categories of sin, guilt, and shame themselves. Misuse of the law does not negate its proper use, but it can cause deep confusion and pain, obscuring the gracious purpose of God’s commands.
Rightly understood, guilt and shame are not enemies but gifts that expose the depth of our need for God. Jack Miller insightfully wrote:
“The gospel does not merely offer relief from guilt and shame; it transforms them into a testimony of grace, pointing us to the One who bore our sin.”
Guilt and shame, when rightly understood, are not ends in themselves. God’s purpose is not to leave us burdened under their weight but to lead us to repentance, restoration, and the grace of Christ, who removes our guilt and covers our shame.
Attempts to silence guilt and shame by redefining morality or rejecting absolute standards only deepen the problem, leaving people restless and alienated. Under the legal promise, guilt and shame awaken us to our inability to achieve righteousness, pointing us to the only One who can remove guilt and shame and restore us to life and love.
Anger as Love in Motion
Anger reveals what we love. It is love in motion, stirred when something we cherish or depend upon for life and joy is threatened. Yet anger is not a simple reality. It arises from the tangled web of sin, idolatry, and suffering in a fallen world, where humanity’s pursuit of life and love apart from God leads not only to personal failure but also to profound harm.
Sometimes anger flows from our own misplaced longings. When we build our lives around idols that promise life and love but fail to deliver, or when these idols are threatened, our natural response is rage. This anger exposes the futility of clinging to what can never truly satisfy, revealing the weight of the legal promise: “Do this and live.”
Yet not all anger stems from idolatry. Anger is also a response to real injustice and suffering. We live in a world where the self-centered pursuit of life and love often comes at the expense of others, leaving deep wounds in its wake. Abuse, betrayal, neglect, and violence are not abstractions but devastating realities that leave scars on those who have been sinned against. These wounds are real, and the anger and sorrow they stir cannot be dismissed.
At the same time, those who carry such wounds often find themselves caught in the painful cycles of sin and hurt. The brokenness caused by sin is not only personal but relational, compounding pain and sorrow as it spreads outward. Yet, in the hands of a gracious God, even the wounded can become healers. The gospel does not dismiss the pain of those who suffer but transforms it, redeeming their stories for His glory and their good.
This complex dynamic underscores the greatness of the legal promise. The legal promise exposes both the sin that causes harm and the wounds we carry from being sinned against. It reveals the futility of striving for life and love apart from God and the devastation of sin’s ripple effects in the world. Yet the legal promise also points beyond itself, awakening us to the need for a Savior who can heal what is broken and restore what is lost.
At the cross, Jesus bore not only the penalty for sin but also the weight of injustice and suffering. Isaiah 53:4 proclaims:
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”
Through the gospel, Christ enters into the pain of the wounded, offering healing and hope. He is not only the answer for our sin but also the balm for our deepest wounds. In Him, the endless cycles of sin, pain, and grasping are broken, and the longings for life and love find their fulfillment in the God who satisfies every need.
The Longing for Life and Love in Culture
The universal longings for life and love profoundly shape human culture. They drive movements for justice, freedom, and flourishing, but when severed from God, these pursuits become sources of division and futility.
Politics offers one of the clearest examples. Political ideologies promise life in the form of security, equality, or prosperity. Progressive movements emphasize liberation and autonomy, while conservative ideologies stress tradition and moral order. Yet both sides fall short. Competing visions of justice often devolve into power struggles, leaving people angry, polarized, and disillusioned.
This has led to what many describe as an age of rage and distrust. Public discourse is marked by hostility, as individuals and groups view one another not merely as opponents but as existential threats to their vision of life and love. Institutions, from governments to religious organizations, are widely distrusted, reflecting a deep cultural alienation.
These cultural pursuits, though often futile, also testify to the greatness of the legal promise. They reflect humanity’s longing for the life and love that only God can provide, while exposing the futility of seeking these gifts apart from Him.
The Longing for Life and Love in Relationships
The longing for life and love is most powerfully felt in human relationships. From romantic partnerships to friendships and family bonds, people seek intimacy, connection, and meaning. Yet, sin distorts these relationships, turning them into battlegrounds of unmet expectations and self-centered demands.
Romantic Relationships and Sexual Sin: Romantic relationships often become ultimate sources of love and fulfillment, leading to unrealistic expectations and deep disillusionment. Sinful sexual relationships—whether premarital sex, adultery, or homosexuality—are examples of humanity’s attempts to redefine love on its own terms. While these actions promise intimacy, they ultimately deepen our alienation from God and others.
Family and Friendships: Parents may place their hopes for life on their children, measuring their worth by their children’s success. Similarly, friendships often fracture under the weight of unmet expectations, as people demand from others what only God can provide.
Jack Miller observed:
“When we expect people to give us what only God can provide, we set ourselves up for disappointment and bitterness. Relationships become battlegrounds instead of places of grace.”
Even in their brokenness, these relational longings point to humanity’s need for covenantal love and fellowship with the God who is the source of life and love.
The Longing for Life and Love in Personal Struggles
The longing for life and love also manifests in deeply personal ways. People strive for significance and worth through achievement, wealth, and self-improvement. Social media amplifies this striving, encouraging people to curate idealized versions of their lives to gain validation and approval. Yet these pursuits often leave people feeling emptier than before.
This striving reflects the weight of the legal promise: “Do this and live.” Yet apart from God, this promise becomes a crushing burden. People burn out chasing success, despair when they fall short, and grow resentful when their efforts fail to satisfy their deepest longings.
Looking Through the Legal Promise to the Gospel
The greatness and glory of the legal promise lie in its ability to awaken the longing for something greater. The legal promise, though broken by sin, continues to reveal humanity’s need for the gospel promise. Jack Miller wrote:
“In God is the fountain of life, righteousness, power, and wisdom: but this fountain is hidden and inaccessible to us. Yet in Christ the wealth of all these things is laid before us that we may seek them in Him.”
The legal promise, with its universal longings and frustrations, prepares the way for the gospel, where these longings are fulfilled in Christ.
Conclusion: The Glory and Greatness of the Legal Promise
The greatness and glory of the legal promise are not merely theological concepts but profound realities that shape the deepest longings of humanity. Woven into the fabric of creation, the legal promise reflects the holiness, justice, and life-giving love of God. It calls humanity to abundant and eternal life, even as it reveals the tragedy of sin and the futility of pursuing life and love apart from the Creator.
The legal promise awakens us to our need for redemption, stirring the universal longings for life and love that only God can satisfy. It points us to the gospel promise, where the fullness of life and love is freely given in Christ.
This essay has traced the glory of the legal promise, but it is only the beginning. The story does not end here. The next step is to explore the gospel promise in the covenant of grace, where the longings for life and love find their ultimate fulfillment in Christ. As the psalmist declares:
“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light” (Ps. 36:9).
In the coming months, I will turn my attention to the exploration of the gospel promise, where the fullness of life and love is freely given to all who believe.
As you reflect on the universal longings for life and love, consider how these desires point beyond the brokenness of this world to the One who offers eternal fulfillment that is ours through faith in Christ.
