Equality - something to be grasped?

Tonight in our youth meeting, we discussed the humility of Christ. Something clicked for me that made me adore Jesus even more.

In the beginning, when Adam and Eve had it made in the garden, Eve believed the lie that she didn't need God...that she could be like God and make it on her own. So, she reached up and took the fruit from the one tree God told them not to eat from. She considered equality with God something to be grasped (literally).

Contrast that with Jesus in whom the "fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Col 1.19). He was with God from the very beginning. He actually had equality with God. And yet he "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing..."

Those who humble themselves in obedience to the Father will be highly exalted in His Kingdom. Let's not cheat ourselves out of eternal glory by "receiving our reward in full" here on earth. Let's not sit in the highest seat at this world's banquet table only to be asked to move down to the end. Let's follow Jesus' example of making ourselves nothing and be exalted by God on the last day. Jesus endured humiliation and shame for the joy set before him (Heb 12.2)...the promise of God that every knee above earth, on the earth, and under the earth would bow and proclaim Jesus as Lord. (Phil 2.6-11)