Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? (14) But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. (14) And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. (15) Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up -if in fact the dead do not rise. (16) For if the dead do not rise, then Christ not risen. (17) And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! (18) Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. (19) If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (20) But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

The first letter to the Corinthians was written by the apostle Paul who was addressing the denial of some of the Christians in Corinth that there is bodily resurrection of the people of God. The gospel is the gospel of the risen Christ and Paul’s argument is, if there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ is not risen. The seal of Christ’s acceptable atoning sacrifice is His resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is proved by an array of testimony supporting this primary principle of the gospel which Paul preached and on which their salvation depended. Because of this fact’s importance the apostles were appointed to be witnesses of Christ’s resurrection. If Christ is not risen all their preaching and faith is groundless; their witness is false.
The admission of the resurrection of Christ is inconsistent with the denial of the resurrection of the dead – this denial involves the denial of the resurrection of Christ. Paul is not discussing here the continued existence of the soul after death but the restoration of the body to life. In our verses today, Paul deduces the possibility and then the certainty of of the resurrection of God’s people. The argument is, if the dead cannot rise, then Christ did not rise for Christ is dead: if the thing be impossible, it never happened. Man is still under condemnation of sin; no resurrection means no justification. Denial of resurrection involves denial of salvation.
Christ Jesus rested the validity of all His claims upon His resurrection – His resurrection proves He is truly the Son of God and Savior of the world. My favorite, C.S. Lewis writes in ‘Mere Christianity’: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God or else a madman or something worse.”