If Christ Has Not Been Raised…

April 2, 2026 Mitch Bedzyk

In 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 we have a beautiful summary of the gospel of the Messiah: Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead in accordance with the Scriptures. This is of first importance for the Christian faith. To deny either of these historical realities is to lose the gospel entirely, and this is what Paul emphasizes as he begins his magisterial discussion of resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 Paul unpacks the implications of Christ being raised from the dead. He shows the indissoluble connection between Christ’s resurrection and ours and then considers the consequences of denying the resurrection.

The Connection Between Christ’s Resurrection and Ours

Because the Corinthians heard Christ proclaimed as being raised from the dead and believed that message (1 Cor. 15:11), Paul asks, “how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:12)? The problem was not so much believing that Christ was raised but that there is no resurrection of the dead for everyone else. They may have been tempted to think his resurrection was a unique, one-off, “spiritual” promotion, like how emperors claimed to achieve divine promotion upon death. Whatever the case may be, they seemed to believe that Christ being raised had no bearing on or connection to any future general resurrection of the dead.

The idea behind Paul’s question is that the resurrection of Jesus is inseparable from the resurrection of believers. There is an indissoluble connection between his resurrection and ours. “Christ’s destiny is their destiny; they are bound up together.”1 This is why Paul says, “if there is no resurrection of the dead [as you say], then not even Christ has been raised” (1 Cor. 15:13) You cannot have one without the other, and Paul makes this same point four times in this section (12-13, 15-16). If the dead are not raised, then not even Christ has been raised. Paul will explain this connection in more detail later on (1 Cor. 15:20-28), but this is what the rest of Paul’s letters are all about: believers are united to Christ; they are in Christ. So, When Paul is not making and emphasizing the connection between Christ’s resurrection and ours, he is explaining what would follow if there is no resurrection, if Christ had not been raised.

The Consequences of Denying the Resurrection

When Paul is not making and emphasizing the connection between Christ’s resurrection and ours, he is explaining what would follow if there is no resurrection, if Christ had not been raised.

First, the apostles’ preaching would be empty, and their faith would be worthless waste of time as well (1 Cor. 15:14, 17). If Christ is not raised, their faith has no content, no basis, no truth, no power.

Second, the apostles would be guilty of misrepresenting God (1 Cor. 15:15). If there is no resurrection they would be saying God did something he did not do; they would be exposed as liars, and liable to judgment. This would be unthinkable for Paul. Other traveling speakers in Corinth might be more concerned with building a platform, “going viral,” and being successful, rather than truth. Paul, however, was more concerned about truth than success.2

Third, if Christ has not been raised…you are still in your sins, still under its power and penalty. (17) This is arguably the strongest argument in the section, and gets worse in verse 18. There is link between sin and death. Death is the result of sin. So, if death is defeated, sin is defeated. But if God has not overcome death in the resurrection of Jesus, the power of sin is not broken, we have not been delivered from the present evil age, and the world is still ruled by death. Without the resurrection, the cross is emptied of all its meaning. Thus, no resurrection means no redemption, no liberation, no atonement, no forgiveness, no new covenant, no victory over death.

Fourth, believers who died have perished (1 Cor. 15:18). Without the resurrection, we are still under the power and penalty of sin, and those who have died will perish without eternal life. If the gospel is true and Christ has been raised, then those who have died in Christ have only “fallen asleep in Christ”. This beautiful image describes the current situation of believers who have died and reminds us of the hope of resurrection. Believers have not “passed away.” That phrase is Christian Science heresy, attempting to ease the sting of death and see it as an illusion. To “pass away” implies our real existence is spiritual, in some ethereal afterlife. But this completely denies the hope of resurrection. Trevin Wax says it well: Jesus “didn’t come to ease our ‘passing.’” Jesus came to destroy and overturn death (15:26). “‘Passing away’ doesn’t do justice to the power of our enemy or the promise of our hope.”3

The miserable summary of these consequences is this: “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). We are the most miserable people, suffering and wasting our time on a lie and false hope, only to die in our sins and perish along with the rest of sinful humanity.

One Word Makes the Difference

The resurrection is a non-negotiable of Christianity. Denying that Christ has been raised and that believers will be raised is simply incompatible and inconsistent with the Christian faith once for all delivered to the saints. It cuts off the very branch we’re sitting on. Everything we believe is utterly meaningless if Christ has not been raised from the dead. Wright says it best:

For Paul, the point of the resurrection is not simply that the creator god has done something remarkable for one solitary individual…but that, in and through the resurrection, ‘the present evil age’ has been invaded by the ‘age to come’, the time of restoration, return, covenant renewal, and forgiveness. An event has occurred as a result of which the world is a different place, and human beings have the new possibility to become a different kind of people.4

But the good news is that Christ has been raised, and he is the “firstfruits” of a resurrection harvest for all those who are united to him (1 Cor. 15:20). This means that we are no longer in our sins; we have been forgiven, justified, and set free (Gal. 1:1-4). Since Christ has been raised, believers who have died in Christ have not perished but have received eternal life and will be raised when Christ comes in glory (1 Thess. 4:13-14). This is our blessed assurance!

If Jesus has been raised, this means he was who he said he was, that he Israel’s Messiah and the world’s true Lord. But there’s more; if Christ has been raised, then a whole new world has opened up, the life of the age to come has broken into this world, and sin no longer has dominion or victory. “The world we know—the world whose loveliness, majesty, fragrance and teeming life are mocked by death, decay, corruption and sheer entropy—has heard the news that there is after all a way forward, a way into a life yet greater, more beautiful, more powerful, than this one. Take away Jesus’ resurrection and all that is put into doubt.”5

References
  1. Thomas R. Schreiner, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, ed. Eckhard J. Schnabel, vol. 7, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2018), 308.
  2. Anthony C. Thiselton, First Corinthians: A Shorter Exegetical and Pastoral Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006), 266.
  3. Trevin Wax, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/passed-away-dies/
  4. N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2003), 332.
  5. Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 210
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