Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 15:16

"For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised:" — 1 Corinthians 15:16 (ASV)

For if the dead rise not.—Better, if the dead are not raised. The Apostle has in the previous verse completed his argument concerning the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection. This fact demonstrates that denying the doctrine of the resurrection cannot be upheld unless it can be proven that the Apostles are wilfully bearing false testimony, and that their preaching, and the faith of those who accepted it, is vain.

He now turns to a different line of argument—a reductio ad absurdum. He maintains the doctrine of the resurrection by showing the incredible absurdities to which a belief in the contrary must lead.

If you do not believe in a resurrection, you must believe the following:

1. That Christ is not raised, and that your faith, therefore, being false, has no result—that you are still slaves of sin. This you know by personal experience to be false. A living man might as well try to believe he is a corpse.
2. That all who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished; that is, that the noblest and most unselfish perish like beasts.
3. That God gives people a good hope in Christ, and that it, not being fulfilled here, is never to be fulfilled.

In other words, if there is no resurrection, the only alternative is atheism. For otherwise you have to believe that, even though there is a God who is wise and just, the purest and greatest life ever lived is ultimately no better than the life of a dog. You would also have to believe that those who have lived the most unselfish lives have perished like beasts, and that God aroused a hunger and thirst of the purest kind in some souls, only for that hunger never to be satisfied and that thirst never to be quenched.