Set Apart Before the Envelope Arrived

In 2019, a young woman named Priya Sharma sat in her cramped apartment in Mumbai, working as a hospital janitor, when a letter arrived from a law firm in London. Her great-uncle, whom she had never met, had named her sole heir to his estate — not because of anything she had done, but because of whose family she belonged to. The inheritance had been written into his will fifteen years before Priya was even born.

She didn't become his niece when she opened the envelope. She already was. The letter simply confirmed what had always been true.

Paul opens his letter to the Romans with a staggering claim — not about what he has achieved, but about what God has done. He calls himself a servant of Christ Jesus, set apart for the gospel. And then he turns that same language on his readers: you are called, you are loved, you are saints. Not because they earned those titles in the streets of Rome, but because the God who promised this gospel through His prophets long ago had already written their names into the story.

This is the breathtaking reversal of Romans 1:1-7. We spend our lives trying to build an identity — through careers, achievements, reputation. But Paul says our deepest identity was established before we ever opened the envelope. We belong to Jesus Christ. We were called before we answered. The gospel that names us was promised before we drew breath.

You are not scrambling to become something. You already belong to Someone.