1 Corinthians 15:14–20

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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 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?

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.

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.

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.

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."

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 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.

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.

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.

Notice how firmly the apostle ties together the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. This is no accident. It is the fruit of God's grace and wisdom. He would link every hope and every ground of confidence for His own people with Christ, and the Christian really is united to Him, and knows it… When conclusions this shocking follow logically from a principle — conclusions about believers who have died, and about their own souls — that is strong evidence the principle is false. And if the conclusions cannot be accepted, who could accept the premises that make them not only fair but unavoidable?

Every hope, then, is gone. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. He does not mean, as some strangely put it, that they were wiped out of existence. He means that everything they had tied themselves to, everything they built on for blessing, was gone.

Notice carefully that here, and all through his argument, the apostle completely rules out the idea of living for ever without a body. Such a being would not be a man. On that idea, redemption would not reach as far as atonement does, for the body is the home and the instrument of sin. So the final ruin of the body would be Satan's triumph and the lasting victory of sin. This verse also teaches us how to take the sweet and triumphant phrase "asleep in Christ" wherever it appears in Scripture. It speaks of the bodies of God's people, not of their souls. Once they leave this present life, they are said to be with Christ — absent from the body, but present with the Lord.

"Jesus died;" His saints only "fall asleep." For Him it was truly death, in all its reality and severity, as the judgment on sin — the sign and picture of a deeper judgment. For them it is only "sleep" — rest and refreshment, and they rise from it to a day that never ends and never fades.

See how he loves to keep linking a risen Christ and the sleeping saints… Often, when you walk away from a grave, from a scene of death, the poor heart feels that you have left something behind. But this is far from that. It carries you on to that wonderful, glorious moment we are waiting for. Then He will show His power as the One who gives life to the dead. All His own who have slept in Him, from every graveyard and every cemetery, will be made alive. They will wake up in resurrection life and glory.

So the future that God has promised is lost, and we are left with a hope in Christ for this life only. If that is all, the Christian is not the happiest of men but the most to be pitied. He meets special trials because of his faith in Christ. Yet, if no dead rise, that faith bears no fruit and leaves him in his sins.

Thank God, there is no such uncertainty. Christ's resurrection is one of the best proven facts in the history of this world… And the fact itself matters enormously. In it God publicly upheld the claims and the character of the crucified One. It showed that He accepted His atoning work. And it brought the complete justification of every sinner who believes in His name.

If there is none, Christ is not risen. And if He is not risen, the preaching of His witnesses is empty, and the faith of Christians is empty too. More than that, these witnesses are false witnesses, because they had declared about God that He raised up Christ from the dead. But God had not raised Him up if the dead do not rise. And in that case their faith was empty. They were still in their sins, and those who had already fallen asleep in Christ had perished. Now, if the believer has hope in Christ for this life only, he is the most miserable of all men. As far as this world goes, he does nothing but suffer. But it is not so, for Christ is risen.

The gospel of God becomes no better than a harmful delusion. Instead of bringing life and incorruptibility to light, it lures the too-trusting believer into a worse fate than his natural death in sins. If death must end their hope in Christ, His people are surely the most miserable of all men. Everything they hoped for lay, or seemed to lie, beyond the grave. But if the dead do not rise, death still reigns — from Adam to Christ, and from Christ on into an endless night. To be a Christian, then, on these terms, is to be a fool indeed.

There is no exaggeration in saying that, if that is all, we are of all people most to be pitied. Of course we are! Every Christian worth the name has deliberately turned his back on the sinful pleasures of the world. So he denies himself what he might have: the pleasure that comes from gratifying his desires. He does this for the sake of a future which after all does not exist. In that case we are indeed like the dog in the fable who dropped the piece of meat while grabbing at its shadow. The out-and-out worldling at least has the pleasures of sin, whereas we would draw a blank in both worlds.

Paul had shown that the denial of the resurrection affects the dead and the living saints alike.

If this life only were in question, Paul really was the most miserable man in the world. He was beaten, persecuted, and had death always before him. Do we want anything else? Money, position, honour, or something else? Then, as a matter of fact, we do not desire death. To "always carry in the body the death of Jesus" is as much as to say that Christ is our all.

No one would hand you a potato as the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, or even a plum as the firstfruits of the apple crop. They would not match. But there is nothing mismatched here. Though Christ is God, yet He became Man, and as the risen Man He is the firstfruits of those who have died in faith. His resurrection must involve the resurrection of all who are His.

The Apostle has shown the solemn consequences that must flow from this error. Now he sets out, in contrast, the blessed results that flow from the great truth that "Christ has been raised from the dead". Christ, risen from among the dead, is "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep". His resurrection is indeed the pledge that all will be raised: the just into their final blessing, the unjust into judgment. But here His resurrection is the pledge of the resurrection of His own who have fallen asleep. Their resurrection will follow the pattern of His — a resurrection from among the dead.

The expression firstfruits shows us two things. As the risen One, He was the first in time to rise, never to die again. And — this is part of it — as the risen One He does not remain alone. This is the meaning of firstfruits: the first in time, but not remaining alone. The word is also used of people. Scripture calls Stephanas the firstfruits of Achaia (1 Cor. 16:15): the first person there to believe. He did not remain alone; others believed after him. There can only be a firstfruits if others follow.

This word "firstfruits" has a great deal of meaning in it. It carries us back to the book of Leviticus. There, when the harvest was ripe and before the rest was gathered in, they cut a sheaf and took it to the temple. The priest would wave it before the Lord. And notice when it was to be waved — on the morning after the Sabbath, the first day of the week. Surely that points forward to the resurrection... The sheaf was only part of the one great harvest. The sheaf of firstfruits and all the other sheaves were much alike.

The saints are the after-fruits of the same order as Himself... No one would hand you a potato as the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, or even a plum as the firstfruits of the apple crop. They would not match. But there is nothing mismatched here. Though Christ is God, yet He became Man, and as the risen Man He is the firstfruits of those who have died in faith. His resurrection must involve the resurrection of all that are His.

Let us look closely at the words used here. We may be sure they are exact, as always in Scripture. "Jesus died"; His saints only "fall asleep". With Him it was truly death, in all its reality and severity, as the judgment upon sin. It was the sign and type of a deeper judgment. With them it is only "sleep" — rest and refreshment. From it they rise to a day that knows no ending and suffers no decline.

These sleepers are not all the dead. For them death has been annulled. It has become a refreshment and a rest — only from the cares and conflicts of this life — while they wait for the endless morning. Christ is the firstfruits of their resurrection, for they alone rise in "the image of the heavenly"... It is impossible to make Christ in any sense the "firstfruits" of the lost.

The firstfruits are the pledge and guarantee of the harvest. In the same way, the resurrection of Christ secures the resurrection of His people. Blessed truth! And how full of consolation to all who mourn over the loss of dear ones who have died in the Lord! Is Christ risen? Then they will also rise at the appointed time. They will come out of their tombs, and the bodies of their humiliation will be changed into the likeness of His glorified body.