“The account of Adam and Eve's sin may seem at first to have little to do with the theme of worship and yet its significance for our topic is foundational. The root sin involved in eating the forbidden fruit was a substitution of man's authority for God’s. Adam determined to live by his own rules rather than submitting to the ‘restraints’ of God's law, even though (as he learned the hard way) God’s commands were designed for his own good.

The effect of Adam’s sin upon his descendants is an inherent determination to rebel against God’s commands and follow our own desires instead. In worship, this corrupt inclination comes in the form of presuming to approach God according to our own ideas, whether by adding them to God's requirements, or simply replacing them.” (Comin, 8-9)