Alphacrusis University College
Crucifixion, the Spirit and Christian Identity in Galatians
Paul’s letter to the Galatians provides important insights into his theology. It is a letter replete with key themes that resonate throughout the rest of his writing. While Christology and a Christological reading of Galatians has tended to predominate in Pauline scholarship, a growing number of recent works have picked up on the theme of Paul’s pneumatology and its correlation to his Christology. Throughout Galatians, Paul presents the crucifixion of Christ as a radical event that has shifted the fabric and understanding of his eschatology. Clearly for Paul, this event has inaugurated the promised new creation evident in antecedent and coterminous Jewish eschatology. What is often overlooked, however, is that, in Galatians especially, whenever Paul discusses Christ’s coming, purpose and crucifixion, in most cases he quickly moves to discuss the Spirit. Yon-Gyong Kwon has already highlighted that this is explicit in Gal 3:1–5. The aim of this paper is to show that this correlation consistently appears throughout Paul’s subsequent argument as well. Consequently, I will identify and discuss the explicit and implicit colocations of Christ, crucifixion and the Spirit throughout the rest of Galatians beyond 3:1–5. This discussion will highlight that the Spirit remains important to understanding Paul’s argument in Galatians, including his discussion of Christ, crucifixion and new creation language, even when the Spirit is not explicitly mentioned.