1 Corinthians 15:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

If sin has not been destroyed, then you are still in sin. If you are still in sin, then we have preached in vain. If we have preached in vain, then you have believed in vain.

On the other hand, death itself remains immortal if Christ has not risen. If He Himself was held by death and did not burst its womb, how did He deliver all others from death, while Himself being held by it?

Therefore the Apostle continues: "Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (1 Cor 15:18). See verse 18.

If the Cross is an apparition, then the Resurrection also is an apparition. If Christ has not risen, then we are still in our sins. If the Cross is an apparition, then the Ascension also is an apparition. And if the Ascension is an apparition, then the second coming also is an apparition, and then everything will be insecure.

But whoever believes in His resurrection cannot fail to believe also in the resurrection of all. Therefore it is natural to ask such people: how could Jesus Christ have risen, if others can never rise?

And again, why was Jesus Christ to rise, if He was not to raise all who believe in Him from death to eternal life, after His own likeness? In that case one must renounce faith in Christ's resurrection.

But this means renouncing all Christianity. It means recognizing as vain the whole preaching of the Gospel, everything lived through and felt, and the whole grace-filled life revealed among the Corinthians in such a great variety of spiritual gifts.

More than this, to deny Christ's resurrection and the universal resurrection means presenting the Apostles as false witnesses. It means bringing blasphemy against God Himself, who raised Christ and sent the Apostles to preach this good news.

Finally, it means asserting that the work of redemption from sins was not accomplished. For the chief victory over the father of evil, the devil, was manifested through Christ's descent into Hades and His resurrection.

And if this victory did not take place, then departed Christians serve as defenseless victims of Hades. Perhaps some earthly Christian hopes remain? But the Apostle has shown earlier that Christians have no glorious earthly hopes, but only labors and struggles.

From this side they are the most pitiable of all men (cf. ch. 4:9-13). Thus unbelief in Christ's resurrection and the universal resurrection leads to the most destructive, dangerous, and comfortless conclusions. Faith in the resurrection leads to something entirely different, as the Apostle shows further.

"If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain" (1 Cor 15:17), one of the preachers of faith who was not vain confesses. What a destructive supposition! Yet the more destructive it is, the more edifying is the truth opposed to it. Since Christ is risen, our faith is both unshakable and saving.

The pagan also believes, but in dead deities, or in creatures mortal and corruptible like himself. How can faith be firm when its deity is corruptible? How can it be life-giving when its deity is dead?

The Jew believes, and believes in the living God, but according to the "letter" of the law, which "kills" the sinner and cannot raise him. What is to be expected from this faith, except what we see from it? It killed the Christ-slaying Jewish people, scattered its bones throughout the world, and with that people destroyed itself. Thus the Jew and his faith have no hope, except in Christianity.

Some sages of antiquity understood the absurdity of paganism, but did not penetrate into the sanctuary of divine truth. They devised a faith in an unknown God and raised an altar to this name. Perhaps this altar is not displeasing to certain philosophers of later times, because it appoints no great sacrifices for itself. But if God is unknown, then how He must be served is also unknown. In that case, can our service be pleasing to Him and saving for us? Thus faith founded on ignorance is destroyed by the same ignorance.

We Christians believe in the living God, according to the law of "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," which frees us "from the law of sin and death" (Rom 8:2). We "know," we dare to say with the Apostle, "Him in whom we have believed, and are persuaded" that "He is able to keep what we have entrusted to Him" (2 Tim 1:12).

How are we "persuaded"? Most surely by the Resurrection of Him "in whom we have believed." If He raised, lifted up, and enthroned His faith, cast into the tomb and brought down into Hades by His enemies in His own Person, then we are persuaded that He is able to establish, preserve, and justify our faith also.

"If in this life only we have hoped in Christ," says the same firm preacher of faith, "we are of all men most miserable" (1 Cor 15:19). Unbelievers find this advantage in unbelief: they may carelessly enjoy the pleasures of the present life and make use of the world's favor. In truth, this advantage is not enviable, and is nothing more than misery. For when it is said, "we are of all men most miserable," it is also said thereby that all men, that is, unbelievers, are more or less miserable.

But if the assurance of the Resurrection were taken from us who believe in Christ, then truly we would be more miserable than all miserable men. "The world," according to the Lord's word, "loves its own." Those who are "not of the world," and therefore Christians, it may not always openly persecute, but it certainly always inwardly "hates" (Jn 15:19).

Lovers of the world enjoy themselves. Christians, either renouncing enjoyments, suffer deprivation, or, allowing themselves enjoyments, must suffer repentance. Yet let not the world flatter itself with the evil pleasure of making us despairing like itself. Even if everything by which the present is valued has been lost, not everything has perished for us. Better still, nothing has perished. Our hope is founded deeper than the present world and is raised higher than it.

"Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15:20). "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom 8:11). Do you require more for perfect hope? If you wish, we already have what is promised to us in the future in exchange for the present.

"God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead through trespasses, has already made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him. And seated us with Him in the heavenly places, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:4-7).

Since the "great love of God," through the Resurrection of Christ, both unshakably establishes us in faith and comforts us with perfect hope, what should our heart feel, if crude sensuality has not made it incapable of feeling spiritual influence? What else, if not that same love of God by which God, as the eternal Sun, shines upon us and kindles us for God?

"The love of God constrains us," the Apostle explains, "because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died" (2 Cor 5:14). And on another occasion, as soon as he named "Christ Jesus, who died, yes rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us," he immediately cries out in unrestrained rapture: "Who shall separate us from the love of God?" (Rom 8:34-35).

Truly, if according to the saying of Love Himself, "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13), then immeasurably great love loved us even when we were His enemies, even unto death for us, and death on a cross. Can we be so ungrateful and insensible that love risen for our sake would not raise our love for His sake?

I shall not go on explaining the various wonders produced by one wonderworking word: "Christ is risen." If it raises in us holy love for God, constantly slain by sinful love of the world and the flesh, this wonder is enough for the perfection of present joy. It is enough for all other wonders to disclose themselves to us of their own accord.

In whomever the risen Christ, on this festive path, has kindled the heart with sweet desire, as in the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and with a hidden sense of His divine presence, him we may greet not with an idle word, and more than by mere custom. We may greet him as the Apostles greeted the travelers from Emmaus: "The Lord is risen indeed!" (Lk 24:34). Truly He is risen. Amen.

On the other hand, deliverance from sins has two sides. The first is the remission of sins. The second is the seed of new life for the destruction of sin. The first is given through communion in Christ's death, and the second through communion in His resurrection.

Believers receive both in the font of baptism. They are washed from sins and restored to new life, that after baptism they may walk in new life. This life is bright, as the state of Christ after the resurrection is bright.

But if Christ has not risen, there is no communion in His resurrection. If this is absent, then there is no seed of new life in us. If this is absent, sin still rules over us, and we are still in sins.

The sins that are upon us are washed away when the sin within us is cut off. From this it follows that, even if Christ's death had worth, we would all remain in sins. We could not receive the new life on which even the remission of sins itself rests.

Therefore, if Christ has not risen, you are still in your sins.