With so many different world religions and Christian denominations, what is ‘The Way’ that Sha’ul (Paul) mentions in his letters? ‘The Way’ is crucial to faith in the God of Israel because the earliest followers of Yeshua of Nazareth, both Jews and gentiles, did not call themselves Christians. They didn’t enjoin themselves or convert to some new religion called Christianity. In fact, the word Christian is only found three times in the new testament and ‘The Way’ at least six times in Acts alone. The first-century Messianic community referred to themselves as ‘The Way’ and followed ‘the way’ of the Messiah and the Hebrew Scriptures.
Tag: righteousness
Righteousness – Hebrew: Tzadakah
Tzadaqah is the Hebrew word for ‘righteousness’ meaning ‘to be justified, to be loyal, honest, lawful.’ ‘Righteousness’ is found 130 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Righteousness can simply mean ‘acting rightly before the lawgiver’ in truth and mercy. Melchizedek in Hebrew is Melech Tzadek meaning ‘King of Righteousness.’
Righteous – Hebrew: Tzadek
Justification is the first step salvation. Justification is just receiving your ‘get out of death row’ card. A repentant individual will appreciate the ‘card’ and the judge who gave it to him freely, and sanctify his lifestyle to one worthy of being set free from the ‘law of sin and death.’
Psalm 119:137-144 (Tzade)
Psalm 119 is about loving God’s Torah, His statutes, commands and precepts. It is broken up into sections with strange looking words or letters which are the Hebrew alphabet. In the Hebrew Scriptures, each line of each section starts with a word beginning with this letter. This is called an acrostic poem. Each Hebrew letter also has a word picture associated with it giving greater meaning and symbolism to each line of the specific letter-ed section.