The origin of life was a planetary process, in which a departure from non-living states led to a new kind of order for matter and energy on this planet. To capture the role of life as a planetary subsystem we draw on the concept of geospheres from geology. Three traditional geospheres – the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere – partition terrestrial matter into three physical states, each associated with a characteristic energetics and chemistry. The emergence of life brought the biosphere into existence as a fourth geosphere. The biosphere is an inherently dynamical state of order, which produces unique channels for energy flow through processes in carbon-based chemistry. The many similarities, and the interdependence, of biochemistry with organometallic chemistry of the lithosphere/hydrosphere interface, suggests a continuity of geochemistry with the earliest biochemistry. We will argue that dynamical phase transitions provide the appropriate conceptual frame to unify chance and necessity in the origin of life, and to express the lawfulness in the organization of the biosphere. The origin of life was a cascade of non-equilibrium phase transitions, and biochemistry at the ecosystem level was the bridge from geochemistry to cellular life and evolution. The universal core of metabolism provides a frame of reference that stabilizes higher levels of biotic organization, and makes possible the complexity and open-ended exploration of evolutionary dynamics.