산상설교의 윤리

Abstract

Christian faith and reality are the two areas which make up the christian identity. Just as the identity of salt and light exists not in itself but outwards, christian and church find their identity in the social reality. The ultimate task of christian ethics is to recover the correlation between faith and practice, law and gospel and eventually to establish the mutual relationship between church and society. The eschatological dimension in the ethical command of the Sermon on the Mount reveals the nature and meaning of man and history. This command indicates the grace of God who calls man into being for his neighbor, so to speak, into the request for repentance. The Sermon on the Mount does not set forth itself as a new law, but as a complete interpretation of the law. Jesus would complete the law through practicing love rather than proposing the new law. It is interested in the human mind, by no means in human conduct. It seeks the good existence, before it requires the good conduct. The Sermon on the Mount implicates that the righteousness is to be extended to the social dimension much more than the individual dimension. It is not merely the human mind that is to be holy. The social structures and circumstances in which the human being tries to realize himself, are also to be holy. Law and gospel are unified in tension. The unity of law and gospel exists only in the unity of the law-giver and gospel-giver. It is not the object of thought and insight but of faith. The law maintains still its identity and function for those who live in Gospel. Accordingly does the law carry out, instead of normative function, the educational function which help us complete the given salvation. The Sermon on the Mount emphasizes this educational function of the law. The command of the Sermon on the Mount urges the transformation of human being, before it demands the concrete action. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus indicates that the human behavior occurs already in his heart prior to that it is expressed outward. The human behavior means in this case a follow-up verification of justification. Thus it is formed through God’s activity which happens toward him. The Sermon on the Mount concentrates on the repentance of heart and spiritual revolution. The change of political order begins with the change of the human being. The political ethics of the Sermon on the Mount is the revolution of political order, because it pursues the abandonment and the distribution of power instead power abuse. Jesus' interest was always inclined to the disciple community as Israel which illustrates God’s reign and his claim for non-violence and peace premises publicity. This community is ruled not through authority and oppression, but through love. Jesus’ social interest which appears in the Sermon on the Mount is practiced by the church. The church is the 'contrast-society' which is organized with alternative norms and values. God's people, whom Jesus sought in the Sermon on the Mount, is the very model of the 'contrast-society'.