If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19…
All preaching is worthless
If you attended church today, then what you heard was bogus. It was nothing but empty words that had no power to change.
Your faith is worthless
If you have placed your faith in Christ, then it is worthless as you are trusting in something that is a lie. “If Christ hasn’t been raised, the Christian faith is fiction and we are stranded in the fall of humanity, trapped in our imperfections. In other words, there is no hope, no purpose, no plan for the future. This is all there is.” (see Raised? Finding Jesus by Doubting the Resurrection)
The Apostle’s testimony is false
We have been fed a lie. “Without the resurrection, Jesus’ teachings are a sham, half-baked ideas from a wandering Jew with a messiah complex” (from Raised?) And the apostles only continued the conspiracy by passing down the fable of the resurrection from generation to generation.
You are still in our sins
There is no forgiveness. Paul wrote in Romans that Jesus was raised “for our justification” (4:25); that we now “walk in newness of life (6:4-5); and that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). But if there is no resurrection, all of this is a lie.
Believers who have died are lost forever
If Christ has not been raised, then “the human terror of death as a gloomy portal leading to oblivion and divine condemnation would be justified” (see 1 Corinthians by David Garland). Believers remain in the clutches of death.
Believers are to be pitied.
If there is no resurrection, then “Christians become pathetic dupes, taken in by a colossal fraud,” writes Garland. “Their transformation and glorious spiritual experiences in this life are all make-believe. They are the most pitiable of all human beings because they have embraced Christ’s death and suffering for nothing.”
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…
Christ is risen! And you, O death are annihilated!
Christ is risen! And the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is risen! And the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen! And life is liberated!
Christ is risen! And the tomb is emptied of its dead;
For Christ having risen from the dead,
Is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be glory and power, now and forever, and from all ages to all ages.
AMEN.
(cited from Evangelical Theology by Michael F. Bird)
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