Our Resurrection Hope | 1 Corinthians 15:12-34

As preached by Timothy O'Day.

1. If there is no resurrection, there is no gospel (12-19).

2. The resurrection is already and not yet (20-28).

3. You will live out your resurrection theology (29-34).

Our Resurrection Hope

1 Corinthians 15:12-34

November 23, 2025

We’ve all had a frustrating moment in which we see a string loose on a sock or a shirt and, not liking how it looked, pull it in order to remove the unseemly strand. But then, upon pulling that thread, other threads within the fabric move and make the whole thing look worse or even ruined. 

That’s what theology is like, too. Christianity isn’t just a collection of doctrines that you can look at and say, “I like that one so I’ll take it, but this one over here doesn’t make sense to me so I will leave it.” No, theology is like a fabric with interconnecting threads that depend on one another to make a whole. If you try to pull one out, you will ruin the whole fabric of the faith.

That’s essentially the argument of 1 Corinthians 15:12-34. If you pull on the thread of the resurrection, then you actually end up losing everything. Recall last week that Paul laid out in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 the gospel as the first principle that should control all of our thinking about life and death. Essential to the gospel is the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. The Corinthians, however, had some among them who were questioning whether or not anyone could actually rise from the dead, so they wanted to remove that idea from their understanding of Christianity. In these verses, Paul is telling them that this isn’t an option. In fact, he teaches that the resurrection touches the rest of our theology. So, if you pull the thread to remove it or simply try to adjust it, then everything goes out of place. So you need to maintain a right understanding of the resurrection so that your doctrine and your life remain in proper alignment. How does this passage make this point? Let me list out three ways that we have to view the resurrection in order to rightly maintain the faith and live our lives in light of what is true.

If there is no resurrection, there is no gospel (12-19)

After laying out the importance and reliability of the gospel in verses 1-11, Paul turns to question such a bold claim that some of the Corinthians are making in verse 12, 

“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” 

As he goes on to say in verses 13-18, if there is no resurrection, then Christ himself isn’t even raised from the dead. And if Christ isn’t raised from the dead, then the proclamation of the gospel is not good–it is the proclamation of a lie. Likewise, one’s faith in Christ is useless. Do you follow the logic he lays out?

1. If there is no resurrection, then not even Christ is raised from the dead.

2. If Christ is not raised from the dead, then the preaching of the gospel is actually the preaching of a lie that cannot save anyone.

3. If the preaching of the gospel is a lie that cannot save anyone, then your faith in Christ that came through the preaching of the gospel is useless.

4. If your faith is useless, then those who trusted in Christ for forgiveness of sins and have already died aren’t just dead–they are damned.

There is no beauty in the Christian life if the gospel isn’t actually true. There is no good in the Christian life if Christ is not actually raised and if you remain in your sin. Even if your belief system gives you a feeling of peace now, it doesn’t make it good. What makes it good is that it is true. If there is no resurrection, Paul has one conclusion that he states in verse 19,

“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” 

What Christ Earns for You

The message of the gospel is that Christ has taken your sin on himself and therefore dies as your substitute. Our sins are imputed to him, given to him, and he dies for them. But the gospel is not merely that Jesus dies in your place. The resurrection is essential to the reality of the gospel message, as Paul made clear in 15:3-4. Why is the resurrection essential? Because it it shows that your sin is actually totally paid. The wages of sin is death. Your sin deserves eternal death. So Christ undergoes that death. But in his resurrection, he shows that he has fully paid the debt you owe so that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Think of it this way. You owe a debt that cannot be repaid in your lifetime. In fact, it would take multiple lifetimes for you to pay back this debt. You have a friend an older friend who decides to give you all of his assets as an inheritance upon his death. He dies, he gives all to you, and you use it to pay down your debt. But the debt isn’t totally paid. It is dented, but it isn’t paid. 

If Christ isn’t risen from the dead, then at best this is what he does for you. He pays for some of your sin debt, but he doesn’t pay for all of it. How do we know? Because he is still dead. If he is still dead, then death still has dominion over him. 

But, as verse 20 says, Christ is risen from the dead. By his resurrection, all who place their faith in him can be assured that he has paid the entire price for your soul. You are not sort of redeemed but entirely redeemed and belong to Jesus Christ because he purchased you with his perfect life. 

When you place your faith in Jesus Christ, you are united to him so that whatever is true of him becomes true of you. His righteousness becomes your righteousness; your sin becomes his and he has died for it and completely extinguished the wrath you deserve for sin. God vindicated Christ by rising him from the dead, saying over him “Innocent!” and if you are in Christ, then you are innocent, too!

By faith, your destiny is tied to the destiny of Jesus Christ. If he isn’t raised, you aren’t forgiven. But he is raised and so you are forgiven and you will be raised one day with him. 

But that just raises a question. If the believers destiny is tied to Jesus Christ, why is it that believers have died and are now still dead. Why aren’t they raised? That’s the thread that Paul wants ut sot keep from pulling next. 

The resurrection is already and not yet (20-28)

After reciting the implications of Christ not rising from the dead in verses 12-19, Paul emphatically states in verse 20, 

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 

By calling Christ “the firstfruits,” he is comparing the resurrection of Christ to the first fruit that comes in during the growing season. It shows that the tree is alive and that more fruit will come. When Christ rose from the dead, his was but the first resurrection to come of the New Creation that God was bringing in through Jesus Christ. 

Then in verses 21-22, we get a little biblical theology lesson. In these verses we are reminded that death entered creation because of Adam’s sin. Adam acted as the first covenant head. When he sinned, all people after him were born under the sentence of death. The old creation is one under bondage. But Christ comes to usher in the New Creation. All in Christ will thus be made alive. 

So why aren’t all who trust in Christ and then die not immediately raised up? Look at verse 23,

“But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” 

This means that there is a time gap between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of believers. As verse 24 says, the resurrection of believers will happen at the end, when Jesus returns and hands the Kingdom to the Father. Jesus will be able to give the Kingdom to the Father because, as verses 25-27 tell us, God the Father has put all things under the authority of the God-man Jesus Christ. Once Christ returns and every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord, the God-man Jesus Christ will hand over all and be subject to the Father, so that God will be all in all. 

Know Where You Are

Now, maybe you want to look at these verses and discuss what it means about eschatology or Christology–and that isn’t wrong to do so. But instead of doing that, I simply want to ask you a question: why is Paul telling us all of this? What is his point? What’s he getting at? Simply this: we need to know where we are in this timeline of events. We live in the time before the consummation. We know the end has not yet arrived because, as it says in verse 26, death is the last enemy and death is still present. The end of history arrives when death is no more.

Isaiah testifies to this in Isaiah 25:8, “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.” 

John testifies to this in similar language in Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Taste and See

That is what we await, but we get to taste it now by faith in Jesus Christ. We know the world is broken; we can feel the darkness deepen. But we also know that Jesus our Messiah is risen from the dead. And if he is raised, we will be raised with him on the last day.

And that will change the way you live, which brings us to our final point

You’ll live in light of your resurrection theology (29-34)

What you believe will happen to you after death will change how you live right now. This is Paul’s closing argument and he makes it through a couple of angles.

First, he says in verse 29 that if there is no resurrection, then baptizing on behalf of the dead makes no sense. Now, before even considering what baptism for the dead means, let’s just focus on Paul’s point in bringing it up: people are engaging in this activity because they believe in the resurrection. If they did not believe in the resurrection, then they would not practice it. So that’s his point in bringing it up. With that said, what does it mean? Let’s start by saying what it doesn’t mean: this verse isn’t a command to practice proxy baptism for the dead like the LDS church teaches. Proxy work is never commanded in the Bible and you’ll notice that this verse isn’t a command. It is an observation about some kind of practice of baptism on behalf of the dead. If you look at the wording of this verse, you’ll see that Paul doesn’t say that the Corinthians are practicing baptism for the dead. Look at how Paul speaks of the Corinthians throughout chapter 15

Verse 14, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”

Verse 15, “We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.” 

Verse 19, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” 

But notice how he speaks in verse 29, “What do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?” 

There is a switch from 1st and 2nd person pronouns (“we” and “our” and “your”) to the third person: people. 

So what exactly is Paul referring to when he speaks of baptism for the dead? I am not sure, but he isn’t referring to a practice that he considers to be acceptable in the church. Why does he bring it up? Because it testifies to the fact that resurrection hope will come out in how you live. 

Consider evangelism as a parallel example. There are a lot of evangelism strategies that I think are not helpful. You won’t see me using a bullhorn on the side of the street or wearing a sign that says “Unless you repent, you are going to hell.” Why do I not do those things? Because I do not think they are effective. But do you know what people who do use those methods show me? They believe that evangelism is important and that unless someone places their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, they will perish. I sincerely believe that, too. So while I do not practice their method, I can wholeheartedly say that what they believe is reflected in their practice. I think Paul is mentioning something similar here about people who practice baptism for the dead. 

Second, Paul uses himself as an example of how one’s hope in the resurrection will be evident in how you live. In verses 30-32, Paul points out that the way he risks his life to make the gospel known makes absolutely no sense if the resurrection is not true. He constantly places himself in danger and dies every day, meaning that he is always in danger and he does things that are not beneficial if there is hope in this life only. Such living makes no sense. If death comes and then there is nothing else, Paul says we should “eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” This is a reference to Isaiah 22:13. In that passage, the prophet Isaiah pronounces judgment that is coming on Jerusalem. But instead of seeing the siege of Jerusalem as an act of God’s judgment that should lead them to repentance, they said “death is near, so let’s just have a good time instead!” They did not consider the fact that they would have to stand before God. 

But since the resurrection is true, risking your life for the gospel is an act of wisdom, not foolishness. This is what Paul is jealous for the Corinthians to see, as he says in verse 31, “I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day?”

What does he mean? He is protesting thinking that is creeping into their midst bit by bit–the thinking that the resurrection isn’t true. If that thinking takes hold, then they will come to think of Paul as a fool because he is constantly risking his life. He is insulted that they would think him a fool for living in light of the resurrection. In fact, they need to listen to him and not to other people, which is what he warns them in verses 33-34,

“Do not be deceived: ‘bad company ruins good morals.’ Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.”

What is Paul getting at with this closing warning? He knows that the Corinthians are not shifting in their thinking about the resurrection because they are contemplating the gospel. Such contemplation, as verses 1-11 shows us, should lead them to have more confidence in the reality of the resurrection. Their thinking is shifting because they are influenced by people who do not believe in the resurrection. Thus, he is warning them about the company that they keep and what they are taking in. Contemplating the gospel won’t lead you to doubt the reliability of the resurrection, but associating with godless ideology and people bent on sin will. In Corinth, Platonic ideas said that the body was a cage that needed to be shed. Likewise, others taught that since life was going to end at death, you should eat and drink for tomorrow you die. In other words, pursue what is pleasing to you even if God calls it sinful. By denying the resurrection, the conscience was eased into pursuing sin.

As I’ve heard it said before, the mind will justify what the heart desires. If you desire sin, you will pull out whatever doctrine is necessary from your theology in order to justify the sin you desire to pursue. But when you pull that thread, everything will go with it.

Instead of letting the fleeting pleasures of sin in the present lull you into forgetting the fact that you will be raised and stand before God one day, let the promise of the resurrection, your eternal reward, direct what you do now instead.