Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Jesus was not raised in the same body which died on the cross but was raised as a spirit creature. One of the passages they use to support this idea is 1 Peter 3:18:
For Christ died once for all time for sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, in order to lead you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. (New World Translation, 2013)
A big fuss is made over the phrase, “made alive in the spirit.” Jehovah’s Witnesses will tell you this means Jesus was raised as a spirit. But, does “in the spirit” mean the same as “as a spirit”? Well, it doesn’t.
The Apostle John uses this same phrase in Revelation 1:10 to indicate he was under the influence of the Holy Spirit on the Lord’s Day:
Revelation 1:10 (ESV)
10 I
was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a
trumpet.
The Watchtower’s own translation, the New World Translation (NWT), even translates this as “inspired”:
By inspiration I came to be in the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a strong voice like that of a trumpet. (NWT, 2013)
So, 1 Peter 3:18 isn’t telling us Jesus was put to death as a flesh and blood man but raised as a spirit person. It’s telling us He was killed by man’s power but raised by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:11 tells us the same thing: that Jesus was raised by the power of the Holy Spirit:
If, now, the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead+ will also make your mortal bodies alive+ through his spirit that resides in you. (NWT, 2013)
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