---
title: 1 Corinthians 15:17
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-15-17/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-15-17.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Corinthians 15:17
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Corinthians 15:17

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Further, if Christ has not been raised up, your faith is useless; you remain in your sins."

## JW Usage

Affirmed — the resurrection is essential, and without it there would be no ransom and no hope. The Watchtower teaches that Jesus was raised as a spirit creature rather than in the body that died, but agrees entirely that the resurrection is indispensable to the Christian message.

## Protestant Usage

Start from the agreement, because it is substantial. Paul makes the resurrection the hinge of everything: without it, faith is useless and sins remain. What follows is that the nature of the resurrection is not a side question. Paul is not saying a resurrection of some sort is needed; he is arguing from the specific event the witnesses in verses 5 to 8 saw. And what they described was a body — one that could be touched, that ate, that showed its wounds, and that left a tomb empty. Jesus himself frames it that way at Luke 24:39: a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you see that I have. That sentence exists to rule out the reading that he was raised as a spirit. So the question to ask is not whether the resurrection matters — you both agree it does — but what the apostles said they saw, and whether a spirit creature answers to their description. It also connects to identity. Revelation 1:17-18 has the risen Christ say "I became dead, but look, I am living forever." The same "I." Compare 1 Corinthians 15:44, 1 Corinthians 15:1, Hebrews 13:8.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Incarnation Is Addition, Not Compression](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/word-became-flesh-not-michael.md) — Why the Logos-to-Michael-to-Jesus-to-Michael cycle does not match the New Testament [Deity of Christ]