And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.
Parallel translations
- WEB If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith also is in vain.
- KJV And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
- BSB And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is your faith.
- NKJV And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
- NASB and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is in vain.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If Christ is not raised, apostolic preaching and the Corinthians' faith are empty. It matters because everything in Christianity rests on the resurrection.
Overview
Paul spells out the cost of denying the resurrection: both the message and the believers' trust become worthless. The whole structure of Christian preaching depends on the risen Christ. This stark verse shows that the resurrection is not optional but the load-bearing center of the faith.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Cor 15:17If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.
- 1 Th 4:14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
- Acts 17:31because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
- Matt 15:9And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.’”
- Jas 2:20But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?
- 1 Cor 15:2by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you — unless you believed in vain.
- Isa 49:4But I said, “I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in vain for nothing; yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God.”
- Gal 2:2I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain.
- Ps 73:13Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence,
- Gen 8:8He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground,
- Jas 1:26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 15:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.