WORSHIP NOTES Volume 20, No. 6 ( June 2025)
The Downward Spiral
The glory of God was at issue in the fall of man. In Romans 1 Paul explains the fall of Adam and Eve into sin:
For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks to him (Romans 1:21a)
Instead of taking their proper place in subjection to their Creator, Adam and Eve fell for Satan’s lie that if they ate the fruit contrary to Gods command “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Instead of acknowledging God’s unique glory (for no one can “be like God), they did not honor or “glorify him as God.”
And this results in a downward cascade of implications:
- “but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
- Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
- and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. . . .
- . . . they exchanged the truth about God for a lie
- and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Rom 1:21b–23, 25)
By rejecting the foundation of true worship (the unique glory of God), Adam and Eve (and we) inevitably turn to false worship.
The fall was a terribly wrong decision about the glory of God. Adam and Eve were created for God’s glory; but in the fall, they did not give him the glory he deserved. Instead they turned to honor images and creatures (including themselves), and led the entire human race down that path.
Romans 3:23 reflects the same perspective:
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Because of sin, we fail to show forth the glory of God as we were created to do. John Piper has written, “The essence of sin is the belittling of God’s glory.” (The Pleasures of God, 158) Adam and Eve decided they wanted things their way, not God’s; and so do we. “Even though they knew God,” they did not give him the glory or give thanks, but they went their own way and “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”
The Great Reversal
We just saw the cascade of negative results that resulted from this wrong decision about God’s glory. But when Christ comes and redeems us by his grace, he puts all those things right that went so terribly wrong in the fall. In the terminology of Romans 1, Christ redeems us:
• so that we can once again “glorify God as God and give thanks.”
• so that we can exchange images and idols for “the glory of the incorruptible God.”
• so that we can exchange Satan’s lie (“you will be like God”) for the truth of God (his unique glory as the Creator).
• so that we can “worship and serve” the Creator once again rather than the creature.