But if there is not a resurrection of [those that are] dead, neither is Christ raised
Some people in Corinth were saying there is no resurrection of the dead. Paul answers by tying the whole gospel to that one point: deny it, and Christ Himself stays in the grave.
The Corinthians were not questioning life after death. They were questioning whether the body comes out of the grave. One writer explains why the word can mean nothing else:
Some among them denied the resurrection — not a separate state of the soul, but the body rising again. In fact the resurrection must be of the body. What dies is what is raised. The soul does not die, so the word "resurrection" would be quite out of place for it. For the body it is needed, both for God's glory and for man.
The error looked narrow. Another writer traces how much rested on it:
Satan is crafty in the way he works. On the surface only the body seemed to be in question. Yet the whole gospel was at stake. If the dead do not rise, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, the sins of believers have not been put away, and the gospel is not true.
The force of the "if" in this verse rests on one plain fact: Jesus really died. He is one of "the dead," so a rule that shuts them out shuts Him out too.
Christ was as really dead as anyone. In that supreme hour at Calvary He gave up His spirit into the hands of His Father. They took His body down and laid it in Joseph's tomb. No one questioned His death... If people question the resurrection of the dead, the foundation is swept away at once.
Greek philosophy and Eastern thinking both left no room for God raising a dead body:
Stoics and Epicureans mock the resurrection and dodge it. It displays the power of God at the very point where man is nothing and rots away. They may boast about the soul. It is man's soul, and its capacity and intellect may be as great in a wicked man as in a righteous one. But God alone can raise the dead. Man does not even have the idea... Then Eastern thought, which always treats matter as evil in itself, and so makes escape from the body the highest blessing, pushes those who take such ideas seriously in the same direction.
Paul does not stop at "Christ has not been raised." He follows the denial down to its end.
It would also mean that the apostles were not true men but false witnesses, and that the Corinthians themselves, despite their faith in that witness, were still in their sins. It would mean that those believers — some of them Corinthians — who had already died had not entered into joy but had perished... Every bright hope of an eternity of glory put out in the night of death, and no waking from it. All that Christ can give us shrinks to a kind example.
Because conclusions like these are unbearable, the starting point must be false:
Conclusions this shocking — about believers who have died, and about their own souls — follow fairly from the principle. That is strong evidence the principle is false. If the conclusions could not be accepted, who could accept the starting points that make them not only fair but unavoidable?
The same letter that corrects this teaching also corrects serious immorality. One writer links the two:
They were being deceived, and every evil teaching has an effect on behaviour. If we think wrong we cannot act right... Because they questioned the resurrection of the body, they had fallen all the more easily into sins that abuse the body.
Few people today argue Paul's point out loud. The risk has shifted:
Christians today are hardly in danger of denying resurrection. But there is great danger of making little of its results for God. There is danger of forgetting or ignoring the vital place it holds before Him, as the new ground on which everything now goes forward for God... So the danger is denying resurrection in practice, in what it means for the believer now, even while accepting it as doctrine.
- Body. What was denied was the raising of the body, not survival of the soul — the soul does not die, so only the body can be raised.
- Class. Christ died and was buried like anyone else. A rule that shuts the dead in the grave shuts Him in too. There is no exception for Him.
- Foundation. Pull that one thread and preaching, apostolic witness, forgiveness, and the dead in Christ all go with it. Christ shrinks to a kind example.
- Reversal. The conclusions are unthinkable, so the starting idea must be false. Paul argues backwards from the wreckage to the error.
- Life. Wrong thinking about the body led to wrong use of the body at Corinth. Today's danger is accepting resurrection as doctrine while ignoring it in practice.
but if Christ is not raised, then, indeed, vain also [is] our preaching, and vain also your faith.
Some in Corinth said there is no resurrection of the dead. Paul presses that idea to its end. If the dead are not raised, Christ was not raised either, and everything built on Him falls with Him. This verse names the first two losses: the preaching, and the faith that received it.
Commentators point out that the denial at Corinth looked narrow and technical. It was only a question about the body. But the argument runs straight back to Christ.
Satan is cunning in his dealings. On the surface, only the body was in question. Even so, the whole gospel was at stake. If the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ was not risen, the sins of the faithful were not put away, and the gospel was not true. So the apostle kept this question for the end of his letter, and he deals with it in full.
The word Paul uses is not a comment on quality. It means hollow — nothing inside. The problem is not the state of the believers. It is the message itself.
Instead of speaking of their inward state as a light reception of the truth, he points out something else. If Christ has not been raised, as the gospel declares, then the preaching of the apostles was in itself as empty as the faith of the saints.
A preached message is only as solid as the events it reports. Take those away and preaching becomes noise.
What he calls the gospel of salvation is only an empty sound, because the facts it rests on are no facts at all. So the faith of God's chosen people becomes nothing more than a gullible dream. All the hard work of Paul and his fellow workers came to nothing. They had sown in tears, only to reap in despair.
The phrase is often misread as a warning about weak believing. It is not that. Faith fails when what it leans on is not there.
Then a whole sequence of results must follow. Paul's preaching was vain, for he would have to be convicted of preaching not a fact but a myth. Their faith was equally vain, for they had believed a myth. This explains the remark at the end of verse 2. The "believing in vain" spoken of there does not mean faith of a poor or defective kind. It means faith — however strong — that rests in an unworthy or false object.
Verse 14 is the second link in a chain of seven. Each loss produces the next.
First, whatever those who put forward this error believed, it was an attack on the Person of Christ, for if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not raised. Second, if Christ is not raised, the preaching is a fable and empty. Third, if the preaching is empty, the faith of the hearers is worthless, since they have put their faith in what is false. Fourth, if the preachers who claim to come from God are preaching fables, they are "false witnesses of God". Fifth, those who put their faith in what is empty are still in their sins. Sixth, if those who are in their sins have fallen asleep, they must have perished. Seventh, if the resurrection is a fable, the living who profess it are the most miserable of all men. Trusting in resurrection, they have given up this present world, and they have nothing for the future.
Some treat the resurrection as an extra — a bonus attached to a gospel that would survive without it. Paul's "if" refuses that.
The resurrection of Christ is therefore vital and basic. It is no side privilege, no bonus proof you can cut away while the main trunk of divine grace stays unharmed. If it is not true, the foundations are gone. The gospel is worthless, the witnesses are impostors, and their message misrepresents God Himself.
But Paul never grants that "if." What stands on the other side of it is enormous.
Thank God, no such uncertainty exists. Christ's resurrection is one of the best attested facts in the history of this world. The authorities of that day took precautions. The rules about sleeping soldiers were strict. The disciples themselves did not believe at first. Many people met the Saviour afterwards. All of it proves that no one staged a holy fraud. God truly raised His beloved Son from among the dead. The fact itself matters enormously. It was God's public vindication of the claims and character of the crucified One. It showed God's acceptance of His atoning work. And it carries with it the complete justification of every sinner who believes in His name.
- Root — a denial that looked like a small point about the body reached back to Christ Himself. The whole gospel was at stake.
- Empty — "vain" means hollow, not weak. If the event never happened, the preaching is an empty sound.
- Object — faith fails by resting on something false, not by being small. However strong it is, faith is worth what it leans on.
- Chain — one loss pulls the next: no resurrection, no risen Christ, no message, no faith. Those who believed are still in their sins, the dead have perished, and the living have nothing ahead.
- Fact — the resurrection is not an optional extra. It is the foundation, and it happened. God vindicated Christ in public and justifies everyone who believes in His name.
And we are found also false witnesses of God; for we have witnessed concerning God that he raised the Christ, whom he has not raised if indeed [those that are] dead are not raised.
Some in Corinth were saying that dead people do not rise, and they said it as men proud of their own insight. Paul shows where that opinion lands: it makes the apostles liars, and liars about God Himself.
The apostles did not just report an event. Their message said what God had done. So if the fact is false, the lie touches God Himself.
If it is not true, the foundations are gone, the gospel is worthless. God Himself is misrepresented, and the witnesses are impostors. Christ predicted this great fact of resurrection over and over again. He also staked the truth of His mission and Sonship on it... So if it is not true, the chosen witnesses stand convicted of lying. Their testimony misrepresents God, because it credits Him with raising the Christ — whom He did not raise, if in fact no dead are raised.
Paul says "we testified" for a reason. God appointed a definite group to this work, and one thing marked them out: they had seen the risen Lord.
They were to testify of Christ's resurrection and to lay the foundation of the Church. So it seems they had to have seen Jesus after He rose from the dead. Peter speaks of choosing another apostle in Judas's place, and says the man must "become with us a witness to his resurrection" (Acts 1:22)... Later Peter said the same to Cornelius. God raised Jesus up on the third day and made Him appear, "not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead" (Acts 10:40-41).
Paul is turning the deniers' own confidence back on them. They claimed a superior grasp of truth. On their view, the apostle who taught them how a sinner is justified had lied about God.
There is a strong vein of irony in the apostle's reasoning. No doubt these deniers of the resurrection claimed an enlightened zeal for truth, just as their modern imitators do. But so did Paul. He claimed a right to speak, not from his own wisdom, but "by the grace of God." And he had testified about God that He had raised His Christ up from the dead. He had also built his whole teaching about the justification of the believing sinner on this very statement... In his fanatical ignorance, Paul had lied and spoken wickedly for God.
Verse 15 is one link in a chain. Each step follows from the one before. The phrase the ESV gives as "misrepresenting God" reads "false witnesses of God" in older translations.
First, whatever those who spread this error believed, it was an attack on the Person of Christ. For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not raised. Secondly, if Christ is not raised, the preaching is a fable and empty. Thirdly, if the preaching is empty, the faith of the hearers is worthless, as they put their faith in that which is false. Fourthly, if the preachers who claim to come from God are preaching fables, they are "false witnesses of God". Fifthly, those who put their faith in that which is empty are still in their sins.
Some will call this language harsh. But a hard word about a man is lighter than a hard word about God.
Hard words! someone will say. But which words are harder — the words that make God a liar, or the words that make man one? For the Apostle plainly declares that if Christ is not risen he has borne false witness (1 Cor. 15:15), and filled the ears of perishing creatures with soul-destroying lies.
Calling the apostles false witnesses means explaining away a crowd of people at once. It also means explaining why they chose a testimony that brought them nothing but trouble.
To refuse their witness we should have to write them all off as liars. The Old Testament foretold the resurrection of Christ centuries before the event. So we should also have to brand Moses, David, Isaiah, Micah and other Old Testament prophets as liars — men separated by centuries, who did not know what each other wrote. It is beyond all experience and reason that they should all be lying. And what could they gain by witnessing to the resurrection of our Lord, but persecutions, imprisonments and martyrdoms?
- Witness about God. The apostles did not just claim that a man rose. They said God raised Him. A false report would therefore misrepresent God Himself.
- Chosen witnesses. God appointed the men who testified. They had eaten and drunk with the risen Lord, so their word carries weight.
- Charge reversed. Paul takes the deniers' premise seriously and shows where it puts him: a man who lied about God while teaching how sinners are justified.
- Chain reaction. Deny resurrection and you deny Christ's. Deny His, and the preaching is a fable, the faith worthless, the hearers still in their sins.
- Cost of refusal. To reject this testimony you must call apostles and prophets liars. Their witness gained them only persecution.
For if [those that are] dead are not raised, neither is Christ raised;
Paul has already said it once: if the dead do not rise, then Christ did not rise. He says it again here, and the question is why one man's rising should stand or fall with everyone else's.
The repeat is not padding. Paul ties the two resurrections together on purpose. And a conclusion this dreadful is itself proof that the starting point is false.
You will see how persistently the apostle binds together the resurrection of Christ and of the dead. This is no accident. It is the fruit of God's grace and wisdom. God would link every hope and ground of confidence for His own with Christ; and indeed the Christian is truly united to Him, and knows it… Conclusions so shocking, both about the saints who have gone and about their own souls, yet following logically from any principle, are strong evidence that the principle is false. But if the conclusions could not be accepted, who could accept the premises that make them not only sound but unavoidable?
The argument works only because Christ was one of the dead. He did not merely seem to die.
Christ was as truly dead as anyone. He had given up His spirit into the hands of His Father in that supreme hour at Calvary. Then His body was taken down and laid in Joseph's tomb. No one questioned His death… Question the resurrection of the dead, and the foundation is swept away at once.
We usually argue forward: Christ rose, so we will rise. This verse runs the other way, from believers back to their Lord. That is possible because He took our place under death.
Notice, too, how Christ and His people are inseparably identified here. If they do not rise, He is not risen. He was as really dead as we can be. In grace He has taken our place under death. He was a man as we are men (sin excepted), so truly that if you deny this outcome for us, you deny the fact about Him; and the object and foundation of faith itself fails. This identification of Christ with men, which lets us draw a conclusion from us to Him, is full of power and blessing.
Some in Corinth were not attacking Christ. They were attacking the idea that a buried body could ever rise. Paul's method is to bring Christ into a discussion where nobody had thought to put Him.
Some among them denied the resurrection — not a separate state of the soul, but the rising again of the body. In fact the resurrection must be of the body. What dies is to be raised. Since the soul does not die, "resurrection" would be quite out of place. For the body it is necessary, for God's glory as well as for man's. And how does the apostle treat this? As he always does. He brings Christ in. They had no thought of Christ in the case. They seem to have had no wish to deny the resurrection of Christ. But should not a Christian have used Christ at once to judge everything by?
The same writer draws out what this costs in daily life.
To abandon resurrection is to give ourselves up to ease, pleasure and indulgence. It is not the immortality of the soul, but faith in resurrection, which keeps a man from sinking to the level of an animal, and below it.
Paul builds a chain of consequences, and each link is worse than the last.
His argument in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19 rests on the assumption that Christ did not rise. If He is not risen, what then? Why, the whole structure of faith and blessing would collapse into ruin. The apostle's preaching would be worthless, and they would stand convicted as false witnesses. The faith of the Corinthians, or of any Christian today, would be worthless. Such people would be as much in their sins as anyone else. The saints who have died in Christ would be in no blessed state at all, but would have perished… Truly the resurrection of Christ is the keystone of the arch. Dislodge that, and every stone of the arch falls out.
- Denial — the error at Corinth was not about Christ but about the body. What dies is what must be raised, so resurrection is bodily or it is nothing.
- Death — the whole argument rests on Christ being as truly dead as anyone, His body laid in Joseph's tomb.
- Identification — He took our place under death. So the reasoning runs both ways: deny our rising and you have denied His.
- Design — God bound Christ to His people on purpose, so that every hope a believer has is fastened to Him.
- Collapse — pull out that one stone and preaching, faith, forgiveness and the dead in Christ all fall with it. Leave it in place, and hope for the body keeps a Christian from living for ease.
but if Christ be not raised, your faith [is] vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Some at Corinth were saying that the dead do not rise. Paul follows that idea to its end: a faith with nothing left in it, sins still unforgiven, and everything hanging on one fact — whether Christ was raised.
They thought the question was only about the body. One writer traces how the argument runs back to its root and takes the whole gospel with it.
Satan is crafty in the way he works. It looked as if only the body was in question. Yet the whole gospel was at stake: if the dead do not rise, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then the sins of believers are not put away, and the gospel is not true.
One commentator explains the force of the word Paul uses.
If Christ has not been raised, their faith is vain — without purpose and without effect; or, as the next clause teaches, "you are still in your sins."
Older translations use "vain" where the ESV has "futile." Either way, the faith achieves nothing.
Paul states the truth as a negative. Notice which event Paul makes the test — not the death, but the rising.
The death of Christ paid the mighty debt of sin; but God's raising Him from the dead is God's acknowledgement that the debt is paid. The resurrection of Christ is the proof to the believer that his sins are gone for ever... It does not say, "If Christ has not died," but, "If Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins." But He is raised. So what is the blessed conclusion for believers to draw? You are not in your sins... He took your sins on Him at the cross, but He does not have them on Him now. Where are they then? Gone for ever.
If the tomb had held Him, that would say something about the load He carried. One writer spells out what it would mean.
If Christ is not raised, there is no Saviour for men and no hope... for if He is not risen, then our sins have proved too heavy a load for Him, and Satan's power too great and death too strong. If Christ has not been raised, then the grave has triumphed and He has failed in His mission... His sufferings on the cross proved His willingness to save, His resurrection from the dead has proved His power to save.
Paul does not stop at the believer's own sins. One commentator lays out the chain, step by step, down to those who have already died.
Second, if Christ has not been raised, the preaching is a fable and vain. Third, if the preaching is vain, the faith of the hearers is futile, because they put their faith in something false... Fifth, those who put their faith in what is vain are still in their sins. Sixth, if those who are in their sins have fallen asleep, they must have perished. Seventh, if the resurrection is a fable, the living who profess it are the most miserable of all people. Believing in resurrection, they have given up this present world, and they have nothing for the future.
The argument works both ways. Christ is raised, and one writer draws the conclusion for anyone who trusts Him.
As Romans 4 says, He died for our sins and was raised again for our justification. His resurrection is the proof that God has accepted the work. If Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins; but if raised, He has borne them, and I am not in them.
- Root. Deny that the dead rise, and you deny that Christ rose. The body looked like the only question. The whole gospel was at stake.
- Futile. "Vain" means faith without purpose and without effect. It rests on nothing, so it achieves nothing.
- Debt. The cross paid the debt. The resurrection is God's acknowledgement that the debt is paid. That is why Paul tests it by the rising, not the dying.
- Reach. The error empties the preaching, leaves the living in their sins, and leaves the dead in Christ perished. Nothing of Christianity survives it.
- Reversal. He is raised. So the sins He carried are gone, and the believer is not in them.