1 Corinthians 15:12 - Meaning and Application

Having shown that the Savior truly rose, the apostle now answers those in Corinth who said there would be no resurrection: If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? (1 Corinthians 15:12). It seems that some Corinthians thought resurrection was impossible. That view was common among the pagans. Paul counters it with one undeniable fact, Christ’s resurrection, and then shows the absurd results that follow from denying it.

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ himself has not risen (1 Corinthians 15:13). He says again, if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised (1 Corinthians 15:16). Yet Scripture had long foretold that Christ would rise, and many eyewitnesses had already seen him alive. How could anyone dare say that what God promised and what had been proved by so many witnesses was not true?

The next result would be that preaching and faith in the gospel would be empty. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless too (1 Corinthians 15:14). If that were true, the main proof of Christianity would collapse. The apostles would be false witnesses about God, because they claimed to speak for him, worked miracles in his name, and testified to something false. Their ministry would be the most useless work in the world, and their preaching would all be for nothing.

That same idea would also make Christian faith empty. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless, and you are still in your sins (1 Corinthians 15:17). That is because forgiveness comes only through his death as a sacrifice for sin. We have redemption, meaning rescue from sin’s penalty, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7). If his blood was shed, but he never rose again, what proof would we have that we would receive justification, meaning being counted right with God, and eternal life through him? If he stayed under death’s power, how could he free us from it?

Paul’s argument is strong: Christ had to rise for our justification, since he was handed over for our sins. Without the resurrection, there would be no justification and no salvation. So if Christ is still among the dead, faith in him would be empty and meaningless.

Another result is that those who have died in Christ have perished. If there is no resurrection, they cannot rise, and so they are lost, even those who died in the Christian faith and because of it. This shows that the Corinthians who denied the resurrection meant more than the body rising again. They were denying any future life or reward. They believed death ended the person altogether, not just the body.

If there is no afterlife in that sense, then dead Christians are truly lost. What then becomes of our faith and religion? Paul presses the point, because the denial of resurrection destroys any hope beyond this present life.

The final absurd result is that Christ’s ministers and servants are of all people most miserable, if they have hope in Christ only for this life (1 Corinthians 15:19). All who believe in Christ do have hope in him. They hope for rescue and salvation through him. But if there is no resurrection, and no future reward, then their hope is limited to this life alone.

If that is true, Christians are worse off than everyone else. In Paul’s day, they had no support from rulers. They were hated and persecuted by many. Ministers and ordinary believers alike had a hard life if this world was all they could expect from Christ. In fact, they would be worse off than others, because they suffered more and had no better hope.

So it is a serious mistake for a Christian to accept a view that leads to such a conclusion. It would leave no hope beyond this world, and it would often make his condition the worst of all. The Christian is meant to be set apart from this world and to live for another one. Earthly pleasures lose much of their appeal, while spiritual and heavenly pleasures become his desire. How sad his case would be if he were cut off from worldly comfort and had no better hope at all.