Biblion Bible Commentary
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If Christ Has Not Been Raised
1 Corinthians 15:12-19
12 Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? · WEB
Paul takes the Corinthian denial and follows it to its end — six consequences, each worse than the last.
Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 1 Corinthians 15:12.
The problem is finally named. Some among you denied a future resurrection of believers — probably not doubting Christ's own rising, but finding the idea of raised bodies distasteful, as an audience formed by Greek thought would. The chapter's method is to show they cannot keep the one while dropping the other.
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised 1 Corinthians 15:13.
The argument runs backwards from their premise. Deny the category and you have denied the instance; Christ's resurrection is not an exception to a rule but the first case of one 1 Corinthians 15:20. What follows is a chain of consequences, and Paul does not soften any link.
If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith also is in vain 1 Corinthians 15:14.
First: the message is empty and so is their belief. Note that he does not say faith would still be valuable for its effects. Christianity in this letter is not a set of ideals that survive the falsification of its history.
Yes, we are also found false witnesses of God, because we testified about God that he raised up Christ 1 Corinthians 15:15.
Second: the apostles are liars — not sincere men who were mistaken, but false witnesses of God, which is the gravest thing a religious teacher can be.
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins 1 Corinthians 15:17.
Third, and this is the theological center: you are still in your sins. The resurrection is not merely a happy sequel to the cross but the evidence that the death accomplished anything. A crucified man who stayed dead is a man the grave held, and if the grave held him it held him on the same terms it holds everyone. Scripture makes the link elsewhere — he was raised for our justification Romans 4:25 Romans 8:34.
Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished 1 Corinthians 15:18.
Fourth, and it is the pastoral cost. The believers already dead — including some of the five hundred 1 Corinthians 15:6 and members of this congregation 1 Corinthians 11:30 — are simply lost. The sleep the letter speaks of has no waking, and the metaphor collapses.
If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable 1 Corinthians 15:19.
Fifth, and the conclusion is deliberately unsentimental. Not we would still have gained much but most pitiable — of all men. People who had renounced Corinth's securities, accepted its contempt, and in Paul's case been beaten and hungry for it 1 Corinthians 4:11 would be the most deceived people alive. The chapter refuses every consoling half-position: either the dead are raised, or the whole thing is a pitiable mistake.
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