After he gives a list of eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, Paul states clearly that the resurrection is the basis for the faith of the Christian (15:12-14). Paul says if Jesus Christ is not raised from the dead, our faith is useless. Paul’s point is that if Jesus was not raised, then it is rather stupid to believe in Christianity. The world for “useless” here is “without content, without any basis, without truth, without power, empty words….”
Without a resurrected Jesus Christ, Christianity is the same as any other world religion with a dead founder. If there is no risen Lord, we have a religion, not a relationship. This is the earliest written reference to the resurrection. The gospels and Acts are written as many as ten to fifteen years later, even with the more conservative dating of those books. This is important because the belief Jesus was raised from the dead was present from the earliest days of Christianity. This is not a doctrine that developed over fifty or a hundred years.
If the resurrection is not a fact, preaching the Gospel itself is false, and those who believe it are pitiable (1 Corinthians 15:15-16). Remarkably, the first witnesses to the resurrection described Jesus as “raised from the dead.” This is not how a first-century Jew would have expected to happen to Jesus, even if they thought he was a great teacher or true prophet.
Based on the belief that Enoch and Elijah were translated from life into heaven, it would have been far more natural for the first disciples to describe what happened to Jesus as an ascension into heaven rather than an actual death and a real resurrection. The fact that the first witnesses immediately understood that Jesus was raised is likely based on his death. He was actually dead, unlike Enoch (who was translated) and Elijah (who ascended in a fiery chariot seen by eyewitnesses).
Paul takes the argument further in the following verses: If Jesus is still dead, you are still in your sins (15:17-19). If there is no resurrection of Jesus, then the Christian faith is futile. If there is no resurrection, then Jesus is still dead. In the preaching of the earliest apostles, the resurrection serves as proof Jesus was innocent. God vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead. In Philippians 2:5-11, because Jesus was obedient and humble to death on the cross, God raised him from the dead and set him at the highest place in the universe. God’s right hand and even knee will bow and tongue to confess that Jesus is Lord. If Jesus had not been raised, he would have had the status of a very good human teacher and would not have been the Lord of all creation.
If there is no resurrection of Jesus, dead believers have perished. It is likely some members of the Corinthian church had died. If there is no resurrection, then the dead are simply that: dead. If there is no resurrection, then even Jesus is still dead, which is impossible according to the many witnesses Paul listed in the previous paragraph. This might be a kind of logical argument, although the reverse of what might be accepted today.
If there is no resurrection of Jesus, there is no hope in this life, and Christians are most pitiful. Paul ties hope to his belief in the resurrection in several passages (1 Thess 4:13; he does not want the readers to grieve like the pagans who “have no hope”). To be pitied (ἐλεεινός) is to be in the most pathetic condition imaginable.
When I read this passage, I always picture Paul just ranting to his amanuensis being like, “If there’s no resurrection, then nothing matters! I’d be lying. You’d be believing something stupid! And this whole Christian thing is a scam!” We read throughout his epistles and accounts through Acts that Paul either had to be the one of the biggest scam artists in history going around the Roman Empire preaching a fake gospel, or he had to be so sure that Christ was the Messiah that he couldn’t stop telling people about him. This passage reminds me of the common phrase that Jesus was either a “lunatic, liar, or Lord.” The mere idea that Jesus rose from the grave is crazy, and its implications are beyond amazing. It is because of a humiliating death on a cross, that the whole population has the ability to be saved. I believe that because this message was so crazy, Paul was so passionate about it (which is seen in this passage). Not just for its shock value, but because he believed it! And a message like this must be shared if it’s really the truth!
The resurrection of Jesus is an important story in the church. 1 Corinthian 15:12-14 states that the resurrection is the basis for the faith of the Christian. One key principle while reading through Long’s (2022) post was that “if there is no risen Lord, then we have a religion, not a relationship”. This shows that while being a follower of Christ, we build our relationship with Him each and every day. Without having a strong relationship with our Follower, we would be in a world of hurt. This brings us back to a teaching chapel we had on October 24, 2022 where Caleb mentioned that we all can do better in our prayers. Although we all pray in our own ways and have a different meaning to what prayer is, we all can intentionally do better to create a more meaningful relationship with Christ. There are three other points made if there was no resurrection of Jesus: the Christian faith would be futile, dead believers have perished, and there is no hope in this life and Christians are most pitiable. It’s interesting to see what our world would be like if there wasn’t a resurrection of Jesus. The main point that I got out of this information is that the resurrection brings us a strong relationship within the Lord.
I liked this blog a lot, because it bridges to the idea of the several eyewitness accounts of the resurrection of Jesus. If the resurrection didn’t happen, Paul demonstrates how silly it would be, for Christianity to be an actual religion. He states that it would be completely useless, and anyone who were to preach the gospel would be pitted, because then it would be false. Any believer who died would be gone forever, they are simply dead. And lastly, without the resurrection, there would be no hope or purpose in life, and christians would surely be pitied. As I said before, this connects to the idea of all the witnesses of the resurrection. Fortunately, the faith in Christianity is not futile, because of the handful amount of people who saw Jesus alive after her was crucified on the cross.
Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is the most important moving piece of all Christianity. If it were not to be true, all Christianity would be futile, there would be no hope in life, no purpose without it. Everything we do because of Jesus dying on the cross would be utterly useless. Believing that we’d be going somewhere after death would be pointless because there would be nothing after death. It’s truly interesting to see how one event can completely alter the future. Today would be very much different if Jesus didn’t resurrect.. Almost as when we go through many dark phases through our lives, because of God, to show us the goodness in life too. That would be pointless, and hopeless.
I think that this is an interesting topic to write a blog about. I think that this blog is based off “what ifs” for example using the story of Adam and Eve? What if Eve and Adam never ate from the tree would there be sin in the world, how would be portrayed? How would it be like for woman? It’s just a matter of what ifs, ike this what if Jesus never died on the cross would Christianity still be the same and would our beliefs be the same as well. I think it’s a matter of faith. I think it’s a matter of faith with the resurrection of Jesus, the concept of heaven and Hell became a thing, and without the resurrection of Jesus, would it still be have been in hell or would the dead just simply be dead even if they were sinners I think that the resurrection of Jesus is an opportunity for sinners to obtain that relationship with God to live in everlasting life, but the question of what if Jesus never resurrected is it an important question to think about as Christians like would we still have that relationship with God would be another religion or what would it be?
Seeing is believing right? Well, the next best thing is eyewitness accounts. Paul gives a long list of eyewitness accounts to the Corinthians. This includes Peter (Cephas), the 12 disciples, a group of 500, his brother James, and even Paul himself. Paul goes on to say that if Christ if not raised from the dead then faith in God and Christianity as a whole is pretty dumb. If Christ does not die, how are we supposed to grow a relationship and be reconciled? We can’t. It’s not possible. This would make the Gospel false, Paul’s teachings irrelevant and worthless, and Jesus’ death would just be another story of someone who did some pretty crazy things and died. I can only imagine Paul saying “If the resurrection is false, all that work was no good. My teachings? False. The travel? Worthless.” Would Paul have even traveled or gotten converted if the Resurrection did not happen? I am going to say likely not. Would he have persecuted Christians? Probably not. He probably would have thought that these people are insane or worshipping some other God. If the resurrection doesn’t happen, we have no purpose for our lives. We wouldn’t have anything to live for.
I would say that there is a lot of importance to take away from the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. First off, without the Resurrection of Jesus, there is no proof of what He was preaching to be which was the Son of God. It is true that Jesus would have been able to preach and spread the word of God for much longer, but He would have had zero proof to what He was saying who He was. “Without a resurrected Jesus Christ, Christianity is the same as any other world religion with a dead founder. If there is no risen Lord, we have a religion, not a relationship (Long, 2022).” I think that you make a great point here, without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are ultimately the exact same as every other religion in the world which makes it pointless. We have the opportunity as Christians to have a relationship with God, through prayer and listening to Him through guidance. There are many ways to grow closer to God, by fasting, devoting time towards Him, and simply Prayer. No other religion can say the same thing that we can say as Christians, which makes it that much more special that we get to have Jesus Christ as our Savior. I am thankful and blessed to be able to have a strong relationship with God, because He has taught me a lot about patience and also how to live a life that He envisions for me. Since we have the opportunity as Christians to have these relationships, take advantage of it and grow closer to Him. All of the proof is there that Jesus Christ did rise from the dead and was resurrected straight from the tomb, so grow in your faith and be an ambassador of Christ.