What does 1 Corinthians 15:15 mean?
Paul's chain of logic is leading to devastating conclusions. If there is no physical, bodily resurrection from the dead for Christians, then, logically, Christ himself was not raised from the dead. Since, as Paul already established, faith in Christ's resurrection is an essential part of the gospel message, then his preaching of the gospel was worthless. In the same way, the faith of the Corinthians in the gospel was also worthless.Now it gets worse. Paul's point here is not merely theoretical; it's practical. If Christ was not raised from the dead, Paul and the other apostles are liars. Not just liars, but they have been lying about God Himself, the worst possible kind of lie. After all, they had preached that God raised Christ from the dead. If Christ was not raised from the dead, then God did not do that, and everyone who has told them so is guilty of a kind of blasphemy.
In this way, Paul's letter proves that the Christian ideal is not "blind faith," or a purely philosophy-based worldview. The gospel is innately tied to real-world events, and the truths of history.