The Godhead – Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ was raised not with the same body which He had prior to His death but as a spirit

Jehovah’s Witnesses teach the following things about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God raised Jesus Christ from the dead ‘not as a human Son, but as a mighty immortal spirit Son ….’ (Let God Be True, page 40). In other words, Jesus was resurrected not with the same body which he had before, but as ‘a spirit Son, no longer flesh” (Religion For Mankind, page 259). The reason why they teach such a thing is this: In order to atone for the sin of Adam, Christ had to sacrifice his human body, which means that He had to renounce it permanently and could not take it back again in the resurrection: ‘Having given up his flesh for the life of the world, Christ could never take it again and become a man once more. For that basic reason his return could never be in the human body that he sacrificed once for all time’ (You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth, page 143). What happened to the body of Christ, then? ‘…. Jehovah God disposed of that body in his own way, just as he disposed of the body of Moses, who was a type of Christ Jesus; but no one knows how’ (The Truth Shall Make You Free, page 264). How, then, did Christ reveal Himself to His disciples after His resurrection? By materializing fleshly bodies on the occasions of his appearances, each such body being different from the others. These were temporary materializations, comparable to those in which angels had occasionally appeared to men.

The physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is denied by many other sects, such as the Unification Church which affirms: ‘As we know through the Bible, Jesus after the resurrection was not the same Jesus who had lived with his disciples before his crucifixion. He was no longer a man seen through physical eyes, because he was a being transcendent of time and space’ (Sun Myung Moon, Divine Principle, 2d ed. Washington, D.C.; The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, 1973, page 360), and the followers of Herbert Armstrong: ‘Now notice carefully God the Father did not cause Jesus Christ to get back into the body which had died. Nowhere does the Scripture say He was alive and active or that God had Him get back into the human body that had died and was now resurrected... and the resurrected body was no longer human... He was again changed and converted into immortality...’ (The Plain Truth, April 1963, pages 10 e 40).

Confutation

The Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ was raised with the same body He had before His crucifixion, so His resurrection was a physical resurrection. Here is what Luke says: “And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them” (Luke 24:36-43). As you can see, Jesus, in order to demonstrate to His disciples that He had been raised with a body made of flesh and bones, and that He was not a spirit (as they had thought at first), commanded His disciples to handle Him and to see His body. Jesus showed them the prints of nails in His hands and He showed them His side, as it is written: “He showed them His hands and His side” (John 20:20 – NKJV). Therefore, the body with which Jesus was raised from the dead was the same body He had before; of course, His former body had been changed into a powerful, glorious and incorruptible body, but, notwithstanding this, the indelible signs of His crucifixion were on that body.

Let me say something else to prove the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, David, foreseeing that God would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, spoke of the resurrection of the Christ saying: “I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:25-27 – NKJV). Why was it written ‘my flesh also will rest in hope’? Because the body of Christ was not appointed to see corruption or to disappear, in that it would be raised. In other words, because the Christ would take His body back again. His soul would return to His body, that’s why it was written ‘my flesh also will rest in hope’. Reflect upon what I am going to say to you. Let us suppose that the soul of the Christ was left in Hades forever or that His soul was received up into heaven forever; could David had said concerning the resurrection of the Christ, ‘my flesh also will rest in hope’? Of course not. Why? Because His body (or flesh) did not rest in hope. Now let us suppose that the Christ did not take His body back again for it disappeared, could we say that His flesh did rest in hope? Of course not. Therefore, so that the words of David concerning the flesh of the Christ might be fulfilled it was necessary for Jesus Christ to take His body back again. And that’s what happened the third day, in that on that day God caused the soul of Jesus to return from Hades to the immortal and glorious body of Christ. So God did not allow the body of Christ to experience corruption. And with that body Jesus appeared to His disciples, He ate and talked with them, and with that body He was received up into heaven and one day He will return from heaven.

Jesus offered His own body to redeem us from all iniquities, therefore He gave Himself as a ransom for all of us; but so that He might deliver us from our sins it was necessary for Jesus to take His body back again. How could Jesus have put away sin if He had not destroyed the death He tasted? This is why He had to be raised with the same body He had before, that He might destroy death and deliver us from sin, of which we were slaves.

Let me ask you the following questions: ‘How could we affirm that Jesus destroyed death, which He tasted for everyone, if He had not returned to live in the same body He had before His death?’ Don’t you think that, if Jesus Christ had not taken His body again, it would make no sense to affirm that He destroyed death?’ I am fully persuaded that if Jesus had not taken His body back again, He could not have destroyed death. But now Christ took His body back again, for this is what God had commanded Him, and changed it into a glorious and immortal body. That’s why we can preach that He destroyed death. Glory to His Name now and forevermore. Amen.

Brethren, beware of all those who deny the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, for they lie against the truth.

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