Without the hope of the resurrection, there is no hope. Without the resurrection, there is nothing more. And there were some in the Corinthian church were saying that resurrection is not possible.
So Paul makes the point that if there is no resurrection, their faith is useless.
And if there is no resurrection, then Jesus was not resurrected.
And if Jesus was not resurrected, our faith is in vain. There is nothing to hold onto.
In that case, Paul says that you should then go and have a party!
If the dead are not raised,
1 Corinthians 15:32
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
He is quoting from Isaiah 22 where the people were called into repentance, to come back to the Lord. Yes the Israelites were not interested in repenting. They were not interested in returning to the Lord. No, instead, they were only interested in living for today. They were interested in only what they were interested in. They went on eating meat. They went on drinking wine. And in themselves these are not necessarily bad things, but in the context of the call to come to the Lord, they essentially ignored God.
And so, in the same way, Paul says that the Corinthians should do the same thing. If they deny the resurrection, they might as well just enjoy their day. They should do what they want to do. They should live their best life. Each one should “do you”, if you will.
In other words, live the life that you have because in the end, it really means nothing. There is no significance. There is nothing more to live for. Live it up. Eat and drink. Do whatever makes you feel good or whatever you want. You might as well because there is nothing else with which to concern yourself.
But if you believe in the resurrection, you live for Christ today as a result of the resurrection, and you live for Christ forever as a result of the resurrection. The hope of the resurrection of Christ, which defeated death, is our hope. When we say that we have faith, we mean that we have faith that Christ’s death was God’s sacrifice for our sins, just as was foretold by the scriptures, and that his resurrection to eternal life will also give us life forever with him.
Without the resurrection, we have no hope. Without the resurrection, there is no life, so we should go and do as we like, for tomorrow we die. But Jesus was raised from the grave. Jesus was raised to life and lives even today. We live for him today and we will continue to live for him in eternity.