---
title: 1 Corinthians 15:14
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-15-14/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-15-14.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Corinthians 15:14
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Corinthians 15:14

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is your faith.

## JW Usage

The Watchtower affirms that Christ was raised, but teaches he was raised as a spirit creature — the physical body dissolved into gases or was preserved somewhere — with no physical continuity between the crucified body and the resurrected Christ. On this reading, 15:14 is defended on the basis that "Jesus was raised" (in some form) is sufficient to hold the gospel together. The passages describing Jesus' tangible post-resurrection appearances (Luke 24:39, John 20:27) are handled as "materialised bodies" — temporary physical forms adopted to reassure the disciples.

## Protestant Usage

Paul's argument in 15:14 is that if Christ has not been raised, "your faith is useless; you are still in your sins." The crisis the verse creates depends on real, bodily resurrection — because the rest of 1 Corinthians 15 explicitly grounds believers' own future bodily resurrection in the pattern of Christ's. At the door, connect to Luke 24:39 ("a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have"), John 20:27 (Thomas invited to touch the nail marks), and John 2:19-21 ("destroy this temple... in three days I will raise it up" — John explicitly identifies "this temple" as Jesus' body). The Witness can have "Jesus was raised" in principle, but Paul's 15:14 logic requires the bodily pattern — which the Watchtower denies.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/bodily-resurrection.md) — A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have [Deity of Christ]