and loving plans for our lives—that lies at the root of legalism and drives it. It bears repeating: in Eve’s case antinomianism (her opposition to and rejection of God’s law) was itself an expression of her legalism! When this distortion of God’s character is complete, we inevitably mistrust him; we lose sight of his love and grace; we see him essentially as a forbidding God. Geerhardus Vos well expresses this in another context: Legalism is a peculiar kind of submission to God’s law, something that