--- title: If Jesus Is God, Who Raised Him? url: https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/god-cannot-die-jw-closing/ markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/god-cannot-die-jw-closing.md type: argument perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching topics: [Deity of Christ] challenges: [Jesus Is a Created Being, The Trinity Is a False Pagan Doctrine] verses: [Acts 20:28, 1 Corinthians 2:8, James 2:1, John 10:18, John 1:1, John 1:14, Philippians 2:6, Hebrews 2:14, Colossians 2:9, Hebrews 9:14, Hebrews 1:3, Luke 23:46] strength: Strong tone: Good attribution: GodLogic Apologetics — 1 Christian vs 2 JWs added: '2026-05-24' last_reviewed: '2026-05-24' index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt --- # If Jesus Is God, Who Raised Him? *Acts 20:28 / 1 Corinthians 2:8 — the two natures of the one Person* ## Doorstep Question > "Read Acts 20:28 in your own Bible. Paul tells the elders of Ephesus to shepherd "the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son." Or 1 Corinthians 2:8 — they "crucified the Lord of glory." If "God cannot die" is a defeater for Jesus' deity, what do these verses mean — God shedding blood, the Lord of glory being crucified? Doesn't the New Testament join the divine identity to the suffering on purpose?" ## JW Claim Jesus died. He gave his life. He was in the grave for three days. Something that's all-powerful, all-mighty, cannot die. God cannot die. Therefore Jesus is not God — he is a creature who could die because creatures die. ## Strategy The JW closing relies on a confusion of "person" and "nature." The Christian answer comes in three steps. Step 1 — distinguish person and nature. A person is a "who." A nature is a "what." Jesus Christ is one divine Person (the Son, eternally) who, in the incarnation, took to himself a complete human nature alongside his divine nature. The Person who died is the same Person who exists eternally as God; the dying happened in his human nature, not in his divine nature. The divine nature is impassible — incapable of suffering or death; the human nature is mortal. One Person, two natures. Step 2 — the New Testament *joins* the divine identity to the dying on purpose. Acts 20:28: "the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son" (or in some manuscripts, "his own blood"). 1 Corinthians 2:8: "they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." James 2:1: "the glorious Lord Jesus Christ." The Bible doesn't shrink from saying God shed blood and that the Lord of glory was crucified — because the one Person who died is the same Person who is God. Step 3 — Jesus predicted he would lay down his life "and take it up again." John 10:18 — "no one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again." Raising himself from the dead is not creaturely capacity. The Person who died is the Person who raised himself — proof the dying did not extinguish him. ## Key Insight One Person died. That Person is God. The human nature died; the divine nature didn't — but it was the same Person all along. ## JW Responses & Counters ### Response 1 **JW says:** "You're inventing 'two natures' to escape the contradiction. The Bible doesn't teach hypostatic union" **Counter:** The vocabulary is later, but the framework is biblical. Philippians 2:6-7 — Jesus existed *in the form of God* but took the *form of a bondservant*. Two forms attached to one Person — the divine "form of God" and the human "form of a bondservant," the same Christ Jesus in both. Hebrews 2:14 — "since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same." He took what he did not have, alongside what he eternally had. Colossians 2:9 — "in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form." Deity dwelling in bodily form is two natures in one Person. The Bible says these things and the Church reads them and gives them a name. The doctrine is the data, not an invention to escape it. ### Response 2 **JW says:** "If only the human nature died, then a creature died for us — that's not a divine atonement" **Counter:** The *Person* died — and the value of the death attaches to the Person, not the nature. Acts 20:28 says God purchased the church *with his own blood* — the divine identity is the warrant for the atonement's infinite worth. A creature dying for creatures cannot ransom an infinite offence against an infinite God. A divine Person dying *in* his assumed human nature provides a sacrifice of infinite value because the one bleeding is God the Son. Hebrews 9:14 — "the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God." ### Response 3 **JW says:** "Then who was on the throne while Jesus was in the tomb? Did the universe lose its God?" **Counter:** Two answers. First, the Father and the Spirit are God; the divine Persons of the Trinity continued to uphold the universe (Hebrews 1:3 attributes upholding to the Son; the Trinitarian framework is that the Persons act inseparably). Second, even the Son's divine nature did not cease — only the human nature died, and the soul and body of Jesus were separated in death (Luke 23:46 — "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit"). His divine nature went on sustaining all things. The death of his human nature did not empty heaven of God. ## What to Avoid Don't shy from the "two natures" language. It's the only honest answer to "God cannot die" and it's the framework the New Testament data pushes you toward. If they say "that's a man-made doctrine," answer with Philippians 2 and Colossians 2 — and ask them to give a different framework that holds Acts 20:28 and 1 Corinthians 2:8 together with John 1:1 and John 1:14. ## Homework Read Acts 20:28 and 1 Corinthians 2:8 in your NWT. Notice what the text actually says — God purchased with blood, the Lord of glory was crucified. Then read John 10:18 — Jesus raises himself from the dead by his own authority. Who has authority to take his own life back? ## Next Moves - [The Incarnation Framework](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/philippians2.md) - [The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/bodily-resurrection.md) - [Colossians 1 — Inserted 'Other'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/colossians1-other.md)