The price of the passage

Monday July 19, 2021

The price of the passage

You know, indeed, at what cost you were delivered from the foolish way of living that your ancestors had passed on to you. It was not by means of perishable things, like silver or gold... 1 Peter 1.18

When excavating ancient burials, it is not uncommon to find a coin on the eyes, between the jaws or in the hand of the deceased. According to Greek funeral rites, an obolus was placed under the tongue of the deceased in order to pay Caron, the pilot of the barque of the Underworld, the price to allow the soul of the deceased to cross the Styx and reach the shores of eternal rest. This practice, however pagan, has long persisted in our countryside... It reflects the feeling that everything does not end after death, that there is indeed a beyond and the need to be in order to cross the final passage...

And this is what the Bible confirms to us. However, it is not before Caron that we should present ourselves, but before the Creator and Holy God ! How then can we think that we could buy from him the assurance of our eternal rest ? Since we cannot pay the price for all our faults, it is God himself who, in his love, takes care of it for us, offering his Son : Christ had to be, like a lamb without blemish and without spot shed his precious blood as a sacrifice for you (1 Peter 1:19). There is only one condition, however : that we personally accept Christ as our Savior !

Bernard Grebille

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Proposed reading : 1st letter of Peter, chapter 1, verses 17 to 21.

Source (Live Today)