Chapter 1 - You Have Forgotten Who You Are
This series imagines what Paul might say to the American church today—written in the tone of a pastoral letter, shaped by the finished work of Christ. It is not Scripture, but a grace-filled reflection using Paul’s voice to address modern challenges.
To the saints in every city across the American landscape, who are in Christ Jesus, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I write to you with both affection and urgency, for reports of your faith have reached me—faith that once rested in Christ alone, but lately has been troubled by many voices. Some call you to define yourselves by your successes, others by your failures. Still others urge you to anchor your identity in the shifting tides of culture, politics, outrage, or performance.
But this is not the way of Christ.
I remind you, beloved: your identity is not discovered—it is received.
You are not the sum of your achievements.
You are not the weight of your disappointments.
You are not the verdict of the crowds, nor the echo of your own anxieties.
You are who you are because of Jesus.
Have you forgotten the word once proclaimed to you?
“For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
You have exchanged the restless striving of the flesh for the righteousness freely given in Him. Why then do you return to the mirrors of this age, seeking validation from people who cannot tell you who you are?
Some of you measure your worth by how well you perform religious duties. Others measure it by how loudly you defend your tribe. Still others by how closely you keep in step with the culture around you. Yet all these measures enslave the heart, for they shift with the winds and cannot hold the weight of your soul.
Children of God, hear me: you are complete in Christ.
Not halfway. Not almost. Not someday.
Complete.
I fear for you, that the noise of your age has weakened your confidence in the finished work of Christ. When you forget who you are, you begin to live as though union with Him were fragile, conditional, or uncertain.
But your union is not upheld by your strength—it is anchored by His.
Therefore, let the American church return to its first assurance:
that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Stand firm in this grace.
Do not let the confusion of your culture define what only Christ has finished.
Do not trade your identity in Him for the fleeting identities offered by men.
For you are God’s workmanship—His poem, His declaration—created in Christ Jesus, not to earn righteousness, but because you already possess it.
Hold fast to the truth, beloved:
Christ is your life, and Christ is your identity.
Remember who you are, that you may live from what He has already made you.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
