The Lynchpin of Reality Text: 1 Corinthians 15:12-34
Introduction: The Unthinkable Alternative
We live in a world that is desperate to have it both ways. Our culture wants Christian morality without Christ, Christian hope without a resurrection, and a Christian view of justice without a final judgment. They want the fruit of the Christian tree, but they are determined to take a chainsaw to its trunk. The Corinthian church, for all its spiritual giftedness, was not immune to this kind of double-minded foolishness. They were a metropolitan church, swimming in a sea of Greek philosophy, which held that the material world was a prison for the soul, and that "resurrection" was a grotesque and undesirable thought. To the Greek mind, the goal was to escape the body, not to get it back.
So, some influential voices in the Corinthian church began to float this idea, this sophisticated compromise, that perhaps there was no bodily resurrection of the dead. They still believed in Christ, or so they thought. They still considered themselves Christians. But they had uncoupled their faith from the historical, physical, bodily resurrection of believers. They wanted to spiritualize it, to make it more palatable to their pagan neighbors.
Paul confronts this not as a minor theological squabble, but as a full-frontal assault on the very foundation of reality. He does not offer them a gentle course correction. He grabs them by the lapels and shows them the sheer, unmitigated logical chaos they are unleashing. What he does in this chapter is demonstrate that the resurrection of Christ, and our subsequent resurrection, is not one doctrine among many. It is the lynchpin. It is the central strut that holds the entire Christian worldview together. If you pull it out, the whole structure comes crashing down into a pile of meaningless, absurd rubble. There is no middle ground. Either Christ was raised, and therefore we will be raised, or He was not, and we are cosmic fools engaged in a pathetic charade.
Paul's argument is a cascade of relentless logic. He shows them that to deny the future resurrection of the saints is to retroactively deny the past resurrection of Christ. And to deny the resurrection of Christ is to detonate the entire gospel, leaving nothing but a smoking crater where our hope used to be. This is not a matter of adjusting one's eschatological chart; it is a matter of heaven and hell, of sense and nonsense, of hope and despair.
The Text
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? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we bore witness against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign UNTIL HE HAS PUT ALL HIS ENEMIES UNDER HIS FEET. The last enemy to be abolished is death. For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? Why are we also in danger every hour? I affirm, brothers, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, LET US EAT AND DRINK, FOR TOMORROW WE DIE. Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” Become righteously sober-minded, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
(1 Corinthians 15:12-34 LSB)
The Logic of Annihilation (vv. 12-19)
Paul begins by laying out the devastating consequences of their position with a series of airtight "if/then" statements. It is a logical chain reaction, and each link is more catastrophic than the last.
"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? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised." (1 Corinthians 15:12-13)
The first point is a sharp jab of inconsistency. The central proclamation, the kerygma, that they all received was that Christ was raised. So how can they affirm the cause while denying the effect? Paul's logic is simple: if the category "resurrection of the dead" is an empty set, then Christ cannot be in it. If dead men don't rise, then the dead man Jesus did not rise. You cannot make an exception for your founder if the rule of nature you've just established forbids it.
From this premise, the disaster unfolds. First, preaching is vain (v. 14). The word is "kenos," empty. If Christ is still in the tomb, then our message is hollow, a clanging gong. It is content-free. We have nothing to say. Second, their faith is also vain (v. 14). It has no object. Faith must be placed in something, and if that something is a lie, the faith is useless. Faith in a dead savior is no different than faith in Zeus or a lucky rabbit's foot. Third, the apostles are liars (v. 15). And not just any liars. They are false witnesses against God Himself. They are perjurers of the most cosmic sort, testifying that God did something He did not in fact do. This is blasphemy.
"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied." (1 Corinthians 15:17-19)
Paul repeats the premise to drive it home, but now he ratchets up the personal consequences. Your faith is not just vain, it is "worthless." And here is the ethical core of it: "you are still in your sins." The resurrection was God's public declaration that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was accepted as full payment for sin (Romans 4:25). If there is no resurrection, there is no divine receipt. The payment was not accepted. The debt remains. Forgiveness is a fantasy. All our talk of grace is just whistling past the graveyard.
And what of those who have already died believing this message? They have "perished" (v. 18). They are lost. Their hope was a cruel joke, and they have been annihilated. There is no comfort for the grieving, only the blackness of eternal loss. This leads to the final, pathetic conclusion. If this whole Christian enterprise is just a motivational program for this life, a way to be a better person before you blink out of existence, then we are "of all men most to be pitied." Why? Because we have denied ourselves, taken up crosses, suffered persecution, and lived for a future that will never come. We are pitiable because we are dupes, the most deluded people on the planet. The hedonist in the gutter is wiser than we are.
The Triumphant Reality (vv. 20-28)
But having pushed them to the very edge of this logical abyss, Paul pulls them back with one of the most glorious and defiant declarations in all of Scripture.
"But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." (1 Corinthians 15:20 LSB)
"But now..." These are the words that pivot the history of the world. The entire nightmare scenario he just sketched is a hypothetical fiction. The reality is this: Christ is risen. This is not a hope, not a wish, but a settled, historical fact. And His resurrection is not a standalone, freak event. He is the "first fruits." This is an agricultural metaphor from the Old Testament law. The first fruits were the first part of the harvest, brought to the temple as a representative sample of the whole. By offering the first fruits, the farmer was consecrating the entire harvest that was still in the field. Christ's resurrection is the guarantee of our resurrection. He is the sample. We are the harvest. What happened to Him will happen to us. It is a package deal.
Paul then grounds this in a grand, covenantal framework, contrasting the two federal heads of the human race: Adam and Christ.
"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming." (1 Corinthians 15:22-23 LSB)
Adam's one act of disobedience plunged his entire posterity into death. We all die "in Adam." He was our representative. But Christ, the second Adam, through His one act of obedience, brings life to all who are "in Him." His resurrection power flows to all He represents. This is not universalism; it is covenantalism. It is not that all human beings will be saved, but that all who are in Christ will be made alive. The "all" in the second clause is defined by the "in Christ."
This resurrection happens in a divine order. Christ is first. Then, at His coming, those who belong to Him. This leads Paul to a majestic description of Christ's present reign and ultimate victory.
"For He must reign UNTIL HE HAS PUT ALL HIS ENEMIES UNDER HIS FEET. The last enemy to be abolished is death." (1 Corinthians 15:25-26 LSB)
This is the engine of history. Christ is reigning now, from His throne in heaven. And His reign is not static; it is an active, progressive subjugation of all His enemies. This is not something that happens in a flash at the end of time. It is the business of the church throughout this age, as the gospel goes forth, casting down strongholds and bringing every thought captive to Christ. This is the heart of a robust, optimistic, postmillennial eschatology. Christ is winning. His kingdom is advancing. And He will continue to reign until all opposition, all rebellion, all rival authorities are put down. And the very last enemy to be defeated in this campaign is death itself, which will be abolished at the general resurrection. Any eschatology that has death being defeated first gets the order of battle exactly backward. After this total victory, Christ will hand the perfected kingdom over to the Father, so that God may be all in all. The Son's mediatorial reign will be complete, and His mission accomplished.
The Practical Absurdity of Unbelief (vv. 29-34)
Paul concludes this section with a series of rapid-fire rhetorical questions, showing how the denial of the resurrection makes Christian practice utterly nonsensical.
"Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?" (1 Corinthians 15:29 LSB)
This is a notoriously difficult verse, and we should be wary of building any grand theological systems upon it. But Paul's point is clear, even if the specific practice is obscure to us. He is making an ad hominem argument. There are a couple of plausible options here. One is that some heretical faction in Corinth was practicing a form of vicarious baptism, and Paul is pointing out their inconsistency: "Why are you people doing this strange ritual for the dead if you don't even believe the dead have a future?" Notice he says "they," not "we." Another strong possibility, advanced by Dabney, is that "baptism" here refers to the Jewish ceremonial washings required after contact with a dead body (Num. 19:11-13). Jewish Christians might have continued this practice. Paul's point would then be, "If death is the absolute end, why all this ritual fuss about being cleansed from contact with it?" In either case, the argument is that their actions betray their stated beliefs. Their practice assumes a future for the dead that their doctrine denies.
He then turns to his own life. Why do we apostles face danger constantly (v. 30)? Why do I "die daily" (v. 31), facing mortal peril for the sake of the gospel? If I fought with "wild beasts at Ephesus" (whether literal or metaphorical for savage opponents) for merely human reasons, what's the point (v. 32)? If there is no resurrection, then the Epicurean motto is the only sane philosophy: "LET US EAT AND DRINK, FOR TOMORROW WE DIE." If this life is all there is, then maximizing personal pleasure and minimizing pain is the only rational course of action. Self-sacrifice is for idiots.
Paul concludes with a sharp, pastoral command. "Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals'" (v. 33). He is quoting a pagan playwright, Menander, to show that even the world understands this basic principle. The company they were keeping, these resurrection-deniers in the church, was poisoning their ethical life. Their bad theology was leading to bad living. The solution? "Become righteously sober-minded, and stop sinning" (v. 34). Wake up from your philosophical stupor. Realize the stakes. The denial of the resurrection is not an intellectual parlor game; it is a manifestation of not knowing God. And Paul says this to their shame. It is shameful for a Christian church to have to be reminded of the foundational fact of their faith, the event that defines all reality: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.