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1 Corinthians 15:17

in 1 Corinthians 15

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

KJV

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

This verse in 1 Corinthians 15

Commentary

15 notes on this verse

A commentator

Cyril of Jerusalem

Catechetical Lecture 13 · Written before 386.

If the cross is an illusion, the resurrection is an illusion also, and "if Christ has not risen, we are still in our sins." If the cross is an illusion, the ascension is also an illusion, and everything, finally, becomes unsubstantial.

This site's exposition

Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God

on 1 Corinthians 15:15-17

Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not: Paul follows the hypothesis one step further, if the resurrection is false then the apostles are not merely mistaken but guilty of testifying falsely about God himself, a charge no sincere error could carry. Verse 16 repeats verse 13's logic once more for emphasis, and verse 17 states the cost to the Corinthians themselves, if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins, the resurrection shown to be the very ground of the forgiveness Corinth had believed it already possessed. The bench notes the deniers had likely not thought their position through to this point, content to keep the atonement while discarding the resurrection that vindicates it.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

Cosmas Indicopleustes

The Christian Topography, Book 7 · Written before 550.

proposed

For if the dead rise not, neither hath Christ risen, but if Christ hath not risen, your faith is vain—-ye are yet in your sins; from that which was confessed and believed in by them, he confutes them and says: for if He, concerning whom …

A commentator

John Chrysostom

Homily on 1 Corinthians 39 · Written in the 5th century.

proposed

"And if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain." With whatever is clear and confessed, he keeps on surrounding the resurrection of Christ, by means of the stronger point making even that which seems to be weak and doubtful, strong and clear. "Ye are yet in your sins." For if He was not raised, neither did He die; and if He died not, neither did He take away sin: His death being the taking away of sin. "For behold," saith one, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." But how "taketh away?" By His death. Wherefore also he called him a Lamb, as one slain. But if He rose not again, neither was He slain: and if He was not slain, neither was sin taken away: and if it was not taken away, ye are in it: and if ye are in it, we have preached in vain: and if we have preached in vain, ye have believed in vain that ye were reconciled. And besides, death remains immortal, if He did not arise. For if He too was holden of death and loosed not its pains, how released He all others, being as yet Himself holden of it?

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on 1 Corinthians · Written before 1274.

proposed

921. – But if Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain. Here he shows that it is incongruous, if their faith were vain. He shows this with three incongruities, which follow therefrom. The first is that it is clear that falseness does …

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Commentary on 1 Corinthians · Written before 1107.

proposed

Again he defends the same proposition. For He rose for the purpose of bringing about the universal resurrection. But if there is no resurrection, then He too has not risen; if this is admitted, then your faith is in vain: which is absurd. "You are …

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)

Ye are still in your sins - That is, under the guilt of them. So that there needed something more than reformation, (which was plainly wrought,) in order to their being delivered from the guilt of sin even that atonement, the sufficiency of which God attested by raising our great Surety from the grave.
8 more voices on this verse

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), yet under the guilt and condemnation of sin, because it is through his death and sacrifice for sin alone that forgiveness is to be had. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, Eph. i. No remission of sins is to be had but through the shedding of his blood.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

From our Saviour's resurrection he establishes the resurrection of the dead and confirms the Corinthians in the belief of it by some other considerations,

The Nineteenth Century5 voices

Your faith is vain, - 1Co 15:14. The meaning of this passage here is, that their faith was vain, “because,” if Christ was not raised up, they were yet unpardoned sinners. The pardon of sin was connected with the belief of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and, if he was not raised, they were still in a state of sin. Ye are yet in your sins - Your sins are yet unpardoned. They can be forgiven only by faith in him, and by the efficacy of his blood.
OUR religion is not based upon opinions, but upon facts. We hear persons sometimes saying, "Those are your views, and these are ours." Whatever your "views" may be, is a small matter—what are the facts of the case? We must, after all, if we want a firm foundation, come down to matters of fact.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

vain--Ye are, by the very fact (supposing the case to be as the skeptics maintained), frustrated of all which "your faith" appropriates: Ye are still under the everlasting condemnation of your sins (even in the disembodied state which is here referred to), from which Christ's resurrection is our justification (Ro 4:25): "saved by his life" (Ro 5:10).

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

OUR religion is not based upon opinions, but upon facts. We hear persons sometimes saying, "Those are your views, and these are ours." Whatever your "views" may be, is a small matter—what are the facts of the case? We must, after all, if we want a firm foundation, come down to matters of fact. Now, the great facts of the Gospel are that God was Incarnate in Christ Jesus, that He lived, here, a life of holiness and love, that He died upon the Cross for our sins, that He was buried in the tomb of Joseph, that the third day He rose, again, from the dead, that after a while He ascended to His Father's Throne where He now sits—and that He shall come, by-and-by, to be our Judge—and in that day the dead in Christ shall rise by virtue of their union with Him. Now, very soon, within the Church of God, there rose up persons who began to dispute the fundamental and cardinal principles of the faith—and it is so even now. When those outside the Church deny that Christ is the Son of God, deny His atoning Sacrifice and deny His Resurrection, we are not at all astonished. They are unbelievers, and they are acting out their own profession. But when men inside the Church of God call themselves Christians and yet deny the resurrection of the dead, then is our soul stirred within us, for it is a most solemn and serious evil to doubt those holy Truths of God. They know not what they do, they cannot see all the result of their unbelief! If they could, one would think that they would start back with horror and let the Truth of God stand where it ought to stand, where God has put it.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Ye are yet in your sins - If Christ has not risen from the dead, there is no proof that he has not been justly put to death. If he were a malefactor, God would not work a miracle to raise him from the dead. If he has not been raised from the dead, there is a presumption that he has been put to death justly; and, if so, consequently he has made no atonement; and ye are yet in your sins - under the power, guilt, and condemnation of them. All this reasoning of the apostle goes to prove that at Corinth, even among those false teachers, the innocency of our Lord was allowed, and the reality of his resurrection not questioned.

The words behind it

15 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Peter 1:3

    Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

    it leads to

    • 1 Peter 1:23

      For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

    • 1 John 5:4

      because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.

    • Romans 15:13

      Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

    • Titus 3:4–6

      But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,

    • Ephesians 1:7

      In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

  • Through

    Romans 4:25

    He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.

    it leads to

    • 1 John 4:9–10

      This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.

    • Isaiah 53:5–6

      But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

    • 2 Corinthians 5:21

      God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Where this verse is studied

About 1 Corinthians

The Crucifixion, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Crucifixion, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the First Epistle to the Corinthians; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2287: “"If There Is No Resurrection"” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Cosmas Indicopleustes, The Christian Topography, Book 7; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 13; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians 39; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 1 Corinthians and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on 1 Corinthians.