He is, after all, about to make the Messiah’s crucifixion the backbone of the letter (Galatians 3:1, 13; 4:5; 5:24; 6:12, 14). Thus, when he speaks in 2:19–20 of his own co-crucifixion, and his own messianic new ‘life’ the other side of that, he is not saying ‘I have had this experience; you should have it too’. He is saying, rather, ‘this is what it means for everyone that Israel’s Messiah was crucified and raised’. He will not speak about such things in the third person, as though detaching himself