1 Corinthians 15 · Verse 17

1 Corinthians 15:17

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1 Corinthians 15:17, King James Version

1 Corinthians 15:17 in other translations

BSBAnd if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
WEBIf Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.
ASVand if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
YLTand if Christ hath not risen, vain is your faith, ye are yet in your sins;
DARBYbut if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
BBEAnd if that is so, your faith is of no effect; you are still in your sins.
WebsterAnd if Christ is not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

What does 1 Corinthians 15:17 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
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).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Barnes' Notes
Verse 17. Your faith is vain. 1Cor 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.

(b) "your faith" Rom 4:25

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 17 Ye are yet in your sins - If Christ has not risen from the dead, there is no proof that he has not been justly put to death. If he were a malefactor, God would not work a miracle to raise him from the dead. If he has not been raised from the dead, there is a presumption that he has been put to death justly; and, if so, consequently he has made no atonement; and ye are yet in your sins - under the power, guilt, and condemnation of them. All this reasoning of the apostle goes to prove that at Corinth, even among those false teachers, the innocency of our Lord was allowed, and the reality of his resurrection not questioned.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on 1 Corinthians 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…

Read the full comment on 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 →

1 Corinthians 15:17 in the original Greek

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

εἰeiifG1487
δὲdethenG1161
ΧριστὸςChristosChristG5547
οὐκouknotG3756
ἐγήγερται,egēgertaihas been raised,G1453
ματαίαmataia[is] futileG3152
ἡhētheG3588
πίστιςpistisfaithG4102
ὑμῶνhumōnof youG4771
ἔτιetistillG2089
ἐστὲesteyou areG1510
ἐνeninG1722
ταῖςtaistheG3588
ἁμαρτίαιςhamartiaissinsG266
ὑμῶν·humōnof you;G4771

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for 1 Corinthians 15:17

  • Romans 4:25

    Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

  • 1 Peter 1:3

    Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

  • 1 Corinthians 15:14

    And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

  • 1 Peter 1:21

    Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

  • Romans 8:33-34

    Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

  • Romans 5:10

    For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

  • Hebrews 10:4-12

    For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. …

  • Acts 5:31

    Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

  • 1 Corinthians 15:2

    By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

  • Hebrews 9:22-28

    And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; …

  • Acts 13:38-39

    Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

  • John 8:21-24

    Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
your.
2,14; Ro 4:25
ye are.
Eze 33:10; Joh 8:21-24; Ac 5:31; 13:38,39; Ro 5:10; 8:33,34
Heb 7:23-28; 9:22-28; 10:4-12; 1Pe 1:3,21

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • 1 Corinthians 15:16

    For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

  • 1 Corinthians 15:17

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

  • 1 Corinthians 15:18

    Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Read all of 1 Corinthians 15

1 Corinthians 15:17 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Y si Cristo no resucitó, vuestra fe es vana; aun estáis en vuestros pecados.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		et si Christ n’a pas été ressuscité, votre foi est vaine, vous êtes encore dans vos péchés:
German
Elberfelder 1871		Wenn aber Christus nicht auferweckt ist, so ist euer Glaube eitel; ihr seid noch in euren Sünden.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Quod si Christus non resurrexit, vana est fides vestra: adhuc enim estis in peccatis vestris.