1 Corinthians 15:17

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:12-19 Having shown that Christ was risen, the apostle answers those who said there would be no resurrection. There had been no justification, or salvation, if Christ had not risen. And must not faith in Christ be vain, and of no use, if he is still among the dead? The proof of the resurrection of the body is the resurrection of our Lord. Even those who died in the faith, had perished in their sins, if Christ had not risen. All who believe in Christ, have hope in him, as a Redeemer; hope for redemption and salvation by him; but if there is no resurrection, or future recompence, their hope in him can only be as to this life. And they must be in a worse condition than the rest of mankind, especially at the time, and under the circumstances, in which the apostles wrote; for then Christians were hated and persecuted by all men. But it is not so; they, of all men, enjoy solid comforts amidst all their difficulties and trials, even in the times of the sharpest persecution.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Your faith is vain, - 1 Corinthians 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. But if he was not raised, he was an impostor; and, of course, all your hopes of pardon by him, and through him, must be vain. The argument in this verse consists in an appeal to their Christian experience and their hopes. It may be thus expressed:

(1) You have reason to believe that your sins are forgiven. You cherish that belief on evidence that is satisfactory to you. But if Christ is not raised, that cannot be true. He was an impostor, and sins cannot be forgiven by him. As you are not, and cannot be prepared to admit that your sins are not forgiven, you cannot admit a doctrine which involves that.

(2) you have evidence that you are not under the dominion of sin. You have repented of it; have forsaken it; and are leading a holy life. You know that, and cannot be induced to doubt this fact. But all that is to be traced to the doctrine that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. It is only by believing that, and the doctrines which are connected with it, that the power of sin in the heart has been destroyed. And as you "cannot" doubt that under the influence of "that truth" you have been enabled to break off from your sins, so you cannot admit a doctrine which would involve it as a consequence that you are yet under the condemnation and the dominion of sin. You must believe, therefore, that the Lord Jesus rose; and that, if he rose, others will also. This argument is good also now, just so far as there is evidence that, through the belief of a risen Saviour, the dominion of sin has been broken; and every Christian is, therefore, in an important sense, a witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, a living proof that a system which can work so great changes, and produce such evidence that sins are forgiven as are furnished in the conversion of sinners, must be from God; and, of course, that the work of the Lord Jesus was accepted, and that he was raised up from the dead.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. 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).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That is, ye are yet in your estate of nature, under the guilt and condemning power of your sins, which are not yet pardoned to you; for no sins are remitted, but upon believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, which none can do, if Christ be not risen from the dead; for by that he was declared to be the Son of God with power, Romans 1:4: his death declared him to be truly man, it was his resurrection that manifested him to be truly God, God over all blessed for ever, and so the proper object of people’s faith.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain,.... As before in 1 Corinthians 15:14 not only the doctrine of faith, but the grace of faith in Christ; even that faith, which is the faith of God's elect; the pure gift of his grace, and the operation of his power; which Christ is the object, author, and finisher of; and which he prays for, that it may not fail; and to which salvation is so often promised in the sacred Scriptures; and yet is vain, than which nothing can be more absurd: it follows,

ye are yet in your sins: in a state of nature and unregeneracy, under the power and dominion of sin, being neither regenerated nor sanctified; for regeneration is owing to the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and is a branch of the power, virtue, and efficacy of it: but if Christ is not risen, there never was, is, or will be any such thing as regeneration and sanctification; things, if ever wrought by the Spirit, are done by him in virtue, and in imitation of the resurrection, as well as the death of Christ: moreover, if Christ is not risen, his people are under the guilt of their sins; there is no expiation nor remission of them, nor justification from them; for though he was delivered as a sacrifice to atone for their offences, and his blood was shed to obtain the forgiveness of their sins, yet he must be raised again for their justification, and be exalted as a Prince and a Saviour, as to give repentance, so remission of sins, or they will never enjoy these blessings; for notwithstanding his sufferings and death, if he lies under the power of the grave, they must remain under the power and guilt of sin, and be liable to everlasting punishment for it.

Geneva Study Bible

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; {7} ye are {e} yet in your sins.

(7) First, seeing death is the punishment of sin, in vain should we believe that our sins were forgiven us, if they remain: but they do remain, if Christ did not rise from death.

(e) They are yet in their sins who are not sanctified, nor have obtained remission of their sins.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Corinthians 15:17-18. Solemnly now also the other conclusion from the οὐδὲ Χριστὸς ἐγήγ., already expressed in 1 Corinthians 15:14, is once more exhibited, but in such a way that its tragical form stands out still more awfully (ματαία and ἔτι ἐστὲ ἐν τ. ἁμ. ὑμ.), and has a new startling feature added to it by reference to the lot of the departe.

ματαία] vain, fruitless, put first with emphasis, as ἔτι is afterwards. Comp. 1 Corinthians 15:14. The meaning of the word may be the same as κενή in 1 Corinthians 15:14 (comp. μάταιος λόγος, Plato, Legg. ii. p. 654 E; Herod. iii. 56; μάταιος δοξοσοφία, Plato, Soph. p. 231 B; μάταιος εὐχή, Eur. Iph. T. 628, and the like, Isaiah 59:4; Eccles. 31:5; Acts 14:15; 1 Corinthians 3:20), to which Hofmann, too, ultimately comes in substance, explaining the πίστις ματαία of their having comforted themselves groundlessly with that which has no truth. But what follows shows that resultlessness, the missing of the aim, is denoted here (comp. Titus 3:9; Plato, Tim. p. 40 D, Legg. v. p. 735 B; Polyb. vi. 25. 6; 4Ma 6:10). This, namely, has its character brought out in an awful manner by ἔτι ἐστὲ ἐν τ. ἁμ. ὑμ.: then ye are still in your sins—i.e. then ye are not yet set free from your (pre-Christian) sins, not yet delivered from the obligation of their guilt. For if Christ is not risen, then also the reconciliation with God and justification have not taken place; without His resurrection His death would not be a redemptive death.[39] Romans 4:25, and see on 1 Corinthians 15:14. Regarding the expression, comp. 3 Esdr. 8:76; Thuc. i. 78. See also John 8:21; John 8:24; John 9:41.

ἄρα καὶ οἱ κοιμηθ. κ.τ.λ.] a new consequence of ΕἸ ΔῈ Χ. ΟὐΚ ἘΓΉΓ., but further inferred by ἌΡΑ from the immediately preceding ἜΤΙ ἘΣΤῈ ἘΝ ΤΑῖς ἉΜΑΡΤ. ὙΜ.: then those also who have fallen asleep are accordingly (since they, too, can have obtained no propitiation), et.

οἱ κοιμηθ.] Observe the aorist: who fell asleep, which expresses the death of the individuals as it took place at different times. It is otherwise at 1 Corinthians 15:20; comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:14 f.

ἐν Χριστῷ] for they died[40] so, that they during their dying were not out of Christ, but through faith in Him were in living fellowship with Him. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 14:13. We are neither, with Grotius (comp. as early interpreters as Chrysostom and Theodoret), to think simply of the martyrs (ἐν = propter), nor, with Calovius, widening the historical meaning on dogmatic grounds, to include the believers of the Old Testament (even Adam), for both are without support in the context; but to think of the Christians deceased.

ἀπώλοντο] they are destroyed, because in their death they have become liable to the state of punishment in Hades (see on Luke 16:23), seeing that they have, in fact, died without expiation of their sins. That this does not mean: they have become annihilated (Menochius, Bengel, Heydenreich, and others), is clear from ἔτι ἐστὲ ἐν τ. ἁμ. ὑμ., of which, in respect of the dead, the ἈΠΏΛΕΙΑ in Hades is the consequence.

[39] Comp. Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 329.

[40] Κοιμᾶσθαι is the habitually used New Testament euphemism for dying (comp. vv. 6, 11, 30), and in no way justifies the unscriptural assumption of a sleep of the soul, in which Paul is held to have believed. See against this, Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 419 ff. In the euphemistic character of that expression, however, which classic writers also have (Jacobs, ad Del. epigr. viii. 2), lies the reason why he never uses it of the death of Christ. This was recognised as early as by Photius, who aptly remarks, Quaest. Amphiloch 187: ἐπὶ μὲν οὖν τοῦ Χριστοῦ θάνατον καλεῖ, ἵνα τὸ πάθος πιστώσηται· ἐπὶ δὲ ἡμῶν κοίμησιν, ἵνα τὴν ὀδύνην παραμυθήσηται. Ἔνθα μὲν γὰρ παρεχώρησεν ἡ ἀνάστασις, ὀαῤῥῶν καλεῖ θάνατον· ἔνθα δὲ ἐν ἐλπίσιν ἔτι μένει, κοίμησιν καλεῖ κ.τ.λ.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Corinthians 15:17-18 unfold this latter consequence in a form parl[2326] to the former: εἰ δὲ … ἄρα (1 Corinthians 15:14). For ματαία (syn[2327] with ἀργή, Jam 2:20; with ἀνωφελεῖς, Titus 3:9), see note on κενόν (1 Corinthians 15:14); a faith is “frustrate,” “null and void,” “which does not save from sin; now “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3), but His resurrection makes His death valid, publishing it to men as accepted by God and availing for redemption (Romans 4:25; Romans 8:33 f., 1 Corinthians 10:9; Luke 24:46 f.; Acts 13:32-38—observe the γνωστὸν οὖν ἔστω); it is hereby that “God gives the victory”over both sin and death (1 Corinthians 15:57). ln Christ’s resurrection is the seal of our justification, and the spring of our sanctification (Romans 6:4-11); both are wanting, if He is still in the grave. The absence of both is implied in being “yet in your sins”—unforgiven, unrenewed. Now this is contrary to experience (1 Corinthians 1:30, 1 Corinthians 6:11); the Cor[2328] readers know themselves to be saved men, as Paul and the App. know themselves to be honest men (1 Corinthians 15:15). P. leaves the inference, which observes the strict method of the modus tollens, to the consciousness of his readers (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20): “We are true witnesses, you are redeemed believers; on both accounts it is certain that Christ has risen,—and therefore that there is a resurrection of the dead”.—A further miserable consequence of the negative dogma emerges from the last: ἄρα καὶ οἱ κοιμηθέντες … ἀπώλοντο. “Then also those that were laid to sleep in Christ perished!”—perished (ptp[2329] and vb[2330] both aor[2331]) when we laid them to rest, and with the “perishing” which befalls those “yet in their sins” (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Corinthians 8:11, Romans 2:12; Romans 6:23, etc.; also John 8:21; John 8:24). They were “put to sleep in Christ” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:14), as the sense of His presence and the promises of His gospel turned their death into sleep (John 11:2, etc.). The ματαιότης of being lulled to sleep when falling into utter ruin! They thought “the sting of death” drawn (1 Corinthians 15:56), and lay down to rest untroubled: cruelly deceived! For the unclassical position of ἄρα, see Wr[2332], p. 699.

[2326] parallel.

[2327] synonym, synonymous.

[2328] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[2329] participle

[2330] verb

[2331] aorist tense.

[2332] Winer-Moulton’s Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins] Christ came, not only to make reconciliation for sin, but to free us from it. Cf. Romans 6:11-23; Romans 8:2. And this He did by proclaiming a Life. He first conquered sin Himself. Then He offered the acceptable Sacrifice of His pure and unpolluted life to God in the place of our corrupt and sinful lives. And then, having at once vindicated the righteousness of God’s law and fulfilled it, He arose from the dead. Having thus led sin and death captive, He redeemed us from the power of both by imparting His own Life to all who would enter into covenant with Him. Thus the Resurrection of Christ was the triumph of humanity (see 1 Corinthians 15:21) over sin and death; the reversal of the sentence, ‘the soul that sinneth, it shall die.’ Had He not risen from the dead, humanity had not triumphed, the sentence had not been reversed, man had not been delivered from the yoke of sin, and therefore those who had ‘fallen asleep’ could never wake again. “None of these things would have taken place, had He not emerged victor from the conflict by rising again.” Calvin.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Corinthians 15:17. Ἁμαρτίαις, in your sins), even those of blind heathenism; 1 Corinthians 15:34, [deprived of the hope of life eternal.—V. g.]

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - Vain; rather, frustrate. The word used (mataia) is different from the word used (kene) in ver 14. Ye are yet in your sins. Because a dead Redeemer could be no Redeemer. Christ's resurrection is the pledge of his Divine power. He was "raised for our justification" (Romans 4:25). It is only "as a Prince and Saviour" that "God hath exalted him to give repentance and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31; Romans 5:10). 1 Corinthians 15:17

Vincent's Word Studies

Vain (ματαία)

A different word, signifying fruitless. The difference is between reality and result.