And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is your faith.
You say there is no resurrection? Yet Christ has risen, an incontestable fact, proved by eyewitnesses and foretold in ancient prophecy. Deny the resurrection and you make the apostles false witnesses of God, make preaching vain, and overturn the principal evidence of Christianity itself.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 Corinthians 15:12-19
your faith . . . vain-- (Co1 15:11). The Greek for "vain" here is, empty, unreal: in Co1 15:17, on the other hand, it is, without use, frustrated. The principal argument of the first preachers in support of Christianity was that God had raised Christ from the dead (Act 1:22; Act 2:32; Act 4:10, Act 4:33; Act 13:37; Rom 1:4).
14. Then is our preaching vain — not simply as having some mixture of falsehood, but as being altogether an empty fallacy. For what remains if Christ has been swallowed up by death — if he has become extinct — if he has been overwhelmed by the curse of sin — if, in fine, he has been overcome by Satan?