Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1Corinthians 15: 12-19)

Corinth was also divided over whether or not there is resurrection of dead. But for Paul this is no distraction. This is a fundamental issue.

For Paul the resurrection of Jesus confirmed his identity as the Christ. In raising Jesus from death God confirmed and communicated the redemptive power of the life and death of Jesus.

Without the resurrection, for Paul, the self-giving of Jesus might be noble and even inspiring, but it would have no fundamental effect on our individual conditions.

Paul firmly believes that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus humankind has been transformed: we may live confidently as inheritors of our loving Creator's estate.

Understanding, accepting, and living consistently with this transformed condition is the foundation and culmination of Paul's purpose.

Above is Caravaggio's rendering of the Apostle Thomas encountering the risen Christ.