Paul said "your faith is worthless"

It is a hypothetical that doesn't really exist. The focus of the passage is on the essential nature of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a doctrine of the Christian faith. Since the resurrection is a fact, our faith is never vain or worthless because the circumstance he described is not a reality.

peace to youraying:

 

What good would faith in a dead Christ be?

 

Dead people coming to faith in a living Christ is much more interesting to me.

 

Well of course people are capable of having faith in ridiculous impossibilities. That's been evident since the Garden of Eden.

 

It says it in the text.......

If Christ was not raised then our faith would be in vain..........

 

If we put our trust in Mohammed, our faith in a dead man is in vain.

If we place our faith in a dead Buddha, our faith is worthless.

If Christ is not risen, let's shut this board down. Our prattlings and pontifications are worthless, in vain and a waste of time.

Gordon, I figured you were setting a trap for the Calvinists. The person who trusts in his own merit, or his own works, for salvation, has a worthless faith. That's how one can have faith--but in the wrong things.

 

I think that the apostle Paul is not talking about faith in general terms. Indeed we can have faith in many things. Rather he is speaking about "THE" faith. Our faith in Jesus Christ and his resurrection, which presupposes that He died and was buried. He died for our sins and He rose again for our justification. What the apostle is saying therefore is, that if Christ did not rise from the dead, then this would mean that God did not accept his sacrifice on the cross for our sins. The resurrection was God's seal that he had accepted Christs death as payment for our sins. For he was set forth to be a propititiation (to quell God's wrath against sin) for our sins.

And if God did not accept his sacrifice, then that would mean that our sins have not been paid for on the cross. The very fact that it was not possible that death could hold him and that he rose from the dead, means that he triumphed over death and therefore was victorious over the last enemy that was death.

So our salvation all hangs on whether Christ rose from the dead. So if he did not rise from the dead, then our faith in his resurrection would mean nothing. It would be a vain thing. The word "vain" here means "worthless". That is why we defend the doctrine of the resurrection so vigorously. Because it is the pivotal point of "THE" faith, our faith. And that is why the opponents of the Christian faith try to demolish the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ. Because if anyone could disprove that, then they would destroy the whole of the Christian gospel and would make it "worthless". For if Christ did not rise from the dead, then this would also mean that the whole of God's plan for the salvation of the world and His victory over sin and death and hell and the wicked one himself, would all fall flat and all things would perish entirely.

 

Not sure. I've been through Somerset as I travel to Cornwall (beautiful countryside). But never seen the Combe Valley which I believe is in Devon? Which is the next county on. Could be wrong though. But I haven't been there. We do have Sloe bushes growing in and around Maldon though. Somerset is renouned for its cider. Zunny Zumerzet where the zoider apples grow.