¹² Now if we have told you about the Anointed One (how He has risen from the dead and appeared to us fully alive), then how can you stand there and say there is no such thing as resurrection from death? ¹³ Friends, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then even the Anointed hasn’t been raised; ¹⁴ if that is so, then all our preaching has been for nothing and your faith in the message is worthless. ¹⁵ And what’s worse, all of us who have been preaching the gospel are now guilty of misrepresenting God because we have been spreading the news that He raised the Anointed One from the dead (which must be a lie if what you are saying about the dead not being raised is the truth). ¹⁶ Please listen. If you say, “the dead are not raised,” then what you are telling me is that the Anointed One has not been raised. Friends, ¹⁷ if the Anointed has not been raised from the dead, then your faith is worth less than yesterday’s garbage, you are all doomed in your sins,