Did Jesus establish a new religion?

I have a good Sunday School teacher and when he is gone he has a very good relief pitcher to take his place. Sunday School is always intelligent and spiritually challenging in our class. From time to time I email some thoughts to them about topics brought up in Sunday School sometimes to provoke thought, sometimes just for encouragement. The following is one of those emails from a few weeks back. I changed the names to take the personal element out.

Did Jesus Establish a New Religion?

Guys,

This is just something that has been in the back of my mind for a few weeks and I thought that now that we are taking a break from Acts it might be a good time to bring it up. I welcome discussion.

(Why the synagogue?)
Billy Bob, you brought it up and Jethro you echoed it, though I think both of you did so as a sort of reminder and I got the idea it was originally discussed in fuller detail in a class when I wasn't there. I'm talking about the question of why Paul would choose to proclaim the gospel first in the synagogue when arriving in a new town before taking it to the streets, as it were. I heard several reasons mentioned for this, things like how the Jews would already have a background understanding of the Scriptures and how the Jews would be better prepared to carry on in a new church after Paul left because of that Scriptural background, i.e practical reasons. Jethro, when you brought it up I think I raised my hand and mentioned Paul's great love for his people:

Romans 9:1-5 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. (ESV)

Romans 10:1-4 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (ESV)

There were a couple of other reasons mentioned in class as well which I cannot remember at the moment. All of these, however, seem to me to miss the main point, sort of like pointing out the individual trees but missing the fact of the forest, to borrow from the cliche.

The forest is this. The Christian faith is the true Jewish faith. If the synagogues were to teach the Torah correctly, and with understanding, they would embrace the Messiah who has come and synagogue would now be church. This is and always has been the position of the Christian Church. If Jesus is the Jewish Messiah then the Jewish faith must embrace him or cease to be valid.

Paul was a synagogue elder and teacher before the road to Damascus. He was a known entity. He proclaimed a zealous brand of Pharisaism that was well-known throughout Judaism, even in these outlying areas. News of events in Jerusalem and Judea would have traveled slowly to the outer provinces (so to speak) and many of these places would have either not known about Paul's falling out with "orthodoxy" or may have been curious to know more about it or his side anyway. Paul had an open door to communicate in these venues and thus would use it (again the practical aspect).

But I do not think it was just pragmatism that drove them/him in this. I think all of the reasons brought up in class are accurate, yet mainly peripheral. The main reason would have been that ours is the true Jewish faith. We are modern Judaism. The Old Testament shows Christ's church in bud, the New Testament in bloom. The Old Testament shows Christ's kingdom in type, the New Testament in reality. Israel, as God's chosen people, were no different than we as God's chosen people. Outwardly they were all God's people, though inwardly it was only true of the remnant. In the same way, outwardly all who profess Christ are God's people but inwardly it is not so--we know that there are many tares among the wheat. We are the natural progression of the Jewish faith and in the most important aspect of all we are true Jews, according to Rabbi Saul of Tarsus.

Romans 2:28,29 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.  (ESV)

We are true Jews, you and I. Those physically descended from Abraham are not the children of the promise, Paul is very clear on this point. True Jews are those who are the descendants of Abraham by faith.

Galatians 3:7-9 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.  (ESV)

Follow Paul's thinking into all its implications and you will find that it is the Church and true believers who are the recipients of God's promises to Abraham, not unbelieving individuals who happen to be physically descended from Abraham.

Romans 9:6-8 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.  (ESV)

To go to a new town and not seek out its community of believers (for that's what a synagogue was) to proclaim to them that their Messiah had come would have been an act of horrid neglect. Just as the Father sent his Messiah to his own community of believers (Israel, ala John 1:11,12), so also Christ sent out his proxies to all the outlying communities of believers first. Those who embraced the Messiah showed their true colors as true believers. Those who rejected showed their true colors as well.

Jesus did not establish a new religion, he merely confirmed and expanded an old one.