Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
The difficulty of this passage is heightened by the fact that "spirit", so far as the mere use of the word is concerned, might refer to his own soul, to his divine nature, or to the Holy Spirit Himself. "By the Spirit" (pneumati) has no article before it in the original Greek and the article is omitted in most texts. The word "spirit" with no article, and with its particular usage in this place, must refer to the spiritually mature or inner principle of life that Jesus possessed.