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I Peter 3:18

18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having
been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

JWs cite this verse to support their view that Jesus was resurrected with a spirit body, not a physical
one. They argue that since the words “flesh” and “spirit” are used in the same verse, that they contrast
each other. They say, just like Jesus died in the flesh, so he was resurrected in the spirit.

According to Romans 1:4, the Spirit of Holiness was instrumental in the resurrection of
Christ. God the Father is also said to have been involved in the resurrection (Acts 2:32,
13:30, Romans 6:4, Eph. 1:19-20). Jesus said also that He could take up His life of His own
accord (John 10:17-18). We see that all three persons of the Godhood were involved in the
resurrection of Christ. I Peter 3:18 the word “in” (“in” the spirit) can also be translated “by
the Spirit” (there is no preposition in the Greek sentence). This verse is saying that Jesus’
body was put to death (flesh) but the Spirit of God was involved in resurrecting His body
from death to life.

WITNESSING NOTE: The resurrection Jesus said in Luke 24:39 that He was not a spirit and that He had
a flesh-and-bones body. How do you related this to the Watchtower teaching that Jesus was raised as
a spirit creature without a physical body?

In your text, p.188 – 189, list and memorize five arguments to validate the physical resurrection of
Christ.

1. Jesus’ resurrection body retained the physical wounds from the cross (Luke 24:39)
2. The resurrected Christ ate food on four different occasions. (Luke 24:30, 24: 42-43; John 21:12-13,
Acts 1:4)
3. The physical body of the resurrected Christ was touched and handled by different people. (John
20:17, Matt 28:9, Luke 24:39)
4. The Greek word for body (soma) when used of a person, always means physical body in the NT.
5. The body that is “sown” in death is the very same body that is raised in life (I Cor. 15: 35-44).

I Corinthians 15:44-50

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it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual
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body. So also it is written, "The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL " The last Adam became a
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life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is
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from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are
earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of
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the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood
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cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
The primary meaning of “spiritual body” here is not an immaterial body but a supernatural, spirit-
dominated body. The Greek words soma pneumatikos mean “body directed by the spirit as opposed to
a body under the dominion of the flesh. The word soma, when used to describe a person, is ALWAYS
(no exceptions) in the Scripture describing a physical body.

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