If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is vain and you are still living in your sins. In what might appear to us as the employment of reverse-psychology, Paul tells the Corinthians that the buck stops with them: “Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead should come to you as good news. You can choose to accept it or you can reject it. However, if you reject it, then know that not only were you duped, you are also still living in your sins! If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then there is no hope for your own resurrection (read immortality of the soul).” Paul connects the resurrection of Christ to the philosophical belief in the immortality of the soul. Where others would see a contradiction, Paul doesn’t sees any. As a matter of fact, the Corinthians should find it easy to embrace the Christian doctrine of rising from the dead because of their belief in the immortality of the soul. 
It is the doctrine of Christ’s rising from the dead that is at the center of the preaching of the good news (gospel). The doctrine of the resurrection fills men and women with hope-a hope of eternity. Isn’t humanity obsessed with the need to live forever? Isn’t this obsession what lured our fist parents to eat of the forbidden fruit? 
For a follower of Christ, the doctrine of the resurrection brings hope for a second chance at life. For by his death and resurrection, God has erased our past sins and given us a way forward. That way forward includes the risen Christ, for it is Christ’s resurrection that renews the world, filling it with hope and optimism.