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? ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. ¹⁴ And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. ¹⁵ Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. ¹⁶ For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. ¹⁷ And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! ¹⁸ Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

Commentary

Vs. 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?"

If Christ's resurrection from the dead is being preached everywhere by all the apostles' and preachers and evangelists and every believer who believes and wants to obey the Gospel of Christ. How is it then that some amongst the Corinthians are now saying there is no resurrection from the dead? The Apostle Paul's question then is poignant, because as he will go on to demonstrate, if there is no resurrection from the dead then everyone's faith in Christ would be futile, all would simply perish and die in their sins and transgressions, and thus be separated from God forever. Yet because there is not only a Scriptural promise of a resurrection of the dead, but verifiable proof of it through Christ's own Resurrection from the dead, all can now have hope of it for themselves through Christ Himself (Phil. 3:11). Thus the Apostle's Paul question is specifically directed towards the Corinthians so that they themselves would all consider the implications of denying the resurrection from the dead. 

Vs. 13 ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. ¹⁴ And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 

And so it is you cannot preach the Lord Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen from the dead and then say there is no resurrection from dead. For Christ Himself is the firstborn of us all who will rise from the dead to spend eternity in the Kingdom of heaven with Himself. Now if there is no resurrection, (as some were saying in Corinth), then Christ is not risen, and if Christ is not risen, then our preaching (meaning all the Apostles and prophets and evangelists) preaching would be empty, and their own faith would then also be futile. And so the Apostle Paul is leaving no room for such an evil doctrine to take root amongst them, because the resurrection from the dead is foundational to our redemption. 

Vs. 15-16 ¹⁵ Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. ¹⁶ For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 

The Apostle Paul continues on by saying that if there is no resurrection from the dead then he himself would also be found to be a false witness of God (vs. 15). As well if there is no resurrection from dead then Christ Himself could not have Risen from the dead (vs. 16). Now there is a resurrection from the dead, because Scripture itself not only foretells it, but the Apostle Paul has already testified to it, of not only his own eye witness account of Christ's Resurrection from the dead, but of the other Apostles and five hundred or so witnesses of it as well (vs. 5-8). Now if that does not convince you of it, consider that throughout the centuries since it, men and women's persons and lives have been transformed by it, by Christ's Holy Spirit regenerating and indwelling both us and them because of it. 

Vs. 17-19 ¹⁷ And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! ¹⁸ Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹ If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

Therefore to deny the resurrection of dead, is only to deny ones own possibility of being redeemed, and not just ones own redmeption, but also anyone else's! And that is why the Apostle Paul is using such language here, to stress the importance of the Corinthians not doing that. Instead they are all to have full assurance of not only their own resurrection from the dead, but also their loved ones who died believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Resurrection from the dead. For one day all will rise from the dead; both believer and unbeliever; yet it will only be those who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ while they lived that will rise to everlasting life with Himself (John 5:24-30; 6:39, 40, 44, 54; 12:48). And so what we learn from the Corinthians is the age old principal that "a little leaven leavens the whole lump." That is a little false doctrine or sin tolerated in any assembly, or amongst any group of believers, inevitably effects and ultimately corrupts the whole. Which is why we must in every generation not only believe and affirm the Gospels truths, but we must also contend earnestly for them, as these are foundational to the faith. Indeed our keeping the Lord's Supper is not so that we practice some sort of ceremonial religious ritual, (by which we seek God's favor in observing it), rather it is so that we remember Jesus' own Crucifixion death and Resurrection from the dead for our being redeemed from our own sins and death (1 Cor 11:23-26). Therefore don't let anyone lesson the Resurrection from the dead importance to us all, because without it no one could be redeemed.

Scripture Quotations
The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.