The absolute moral imperatives are what
Kierkegaard calls "The Ideal". For Kierkegaard Jesus was the
quintessential representative of moral doing, with us regular humans being
unable to completely follow him and the moral ideal. Even so, Kierkegaard
believes that Christianity commands us to acknowledge both the ideal and our
inability to attain it. Without this humble acknowledgment, says Kierkegaard,
concepts such as redemption and grace are left emptied out. The life of the
believer reach their culmination in the dual affinity to Jesus as the supreme
model which is contrasted with our own limitedness, and to Jesus as the
forgiver of our own limitedness.
