15:15
Perhaps most importantly we are mis representing God if we say that there is no resurrection. We need to have it firmly in our minds that we are not preaching our ideas, or any man’s ideas, but God’s message. We do not have any right to change the message. Likewise those who preach a gay-affirming message are misrepresenting God. Notice again the importance Paul puts on our resurrection, for he says that if the dead (ie the dead in general) are not raised, then Christ is not raised. It is absolutely central to the gospel message that you and I will be raised from the dead if we believe in Christ.
15:16,17
Paul repeats his point of v13 that if the dead are not raised, then Christ cannot have been raised. This backward arguing is fascinating, and emphasises the fact that Christ came as our representative, or the second Adam as Paul puts it. We are intimately linked with Him.
Then we get a key theological significance of Christ’s resurrection. Christ died for our sins, but how do we know His death was sufficient to pay for our sins? If Christ was still dead, then as well as having absolutely no grounds whatsoever for believing that we will be raised, neither would we have any proof that our sins had been paid for. Indeed, the conclusion would have to be that His death was not sufficient. So our faith would be futile and we would still be in our sins. No resurrection, no point.
15:18,19
It would also mean that those who have died believing have perished. There is no hope, death is the end, regardless of whether someone believes or not. Notice how practical the Bible is. Ignorant people often view Christianity as believing things without evidence, or even despite the evidence, and see belief in life after death as nothing more than wishful thinking. The truth is that life after death is a logical consequence of the resurrection, the gospel is founded upon the resurrection of Christ, and the resurrection is supported by hard facts.
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