Opt In or Out?

There is an energetic debate going on within the UK, whether organ donation should be an opt in, or an opt out system. The assumption being proposed is that medical staff in the UK will presume you have consented to organ donation, unless you have opted out. I don’t want to explore the ethics of this being the right or wrong thing to do, but look at it from a different angle.

I believe that many folks think their faith, or to be more accurate, their religion, is an opt out system. It would work this way: If you are baptised or christened into a particular church ‘denomination or family’ when you are a baby, then that automatically makes you a member of that faith group, and therefore a christian. So once a ‘christian’ always a ‘christian’, unless at some stage in your later life, you decide to change your mind and opt out. If you don’t do anything about it, you are heaven bound.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but according to the Bible, it doesn’t work like that, because we can only OPT IN to salvation and faith! If you don’t make a conscious decision to ask for forgiveness from a loving and gracious God, you are not a christian by membership of any denomination or faith group, no matter what they tell you. The decision is not made as a baby. Christening or infant baptism doesn’t change the baby, it is a set of promises for the parents and Godparents.

It’s personal, and it’s a conscious choice, as these words confirm: If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 NIV. That just leaves the question, ‘Have you opted IN?’