More (i'm copy\pasting from a Word doc because it's easier for me to keep all the quotes I'm responding to organized and chip away at it when I get time...):

>>>“And if the NT is about breaking people free from the laws of the OT, are Jews condemned to Hell?”

***Following rules and being religious or a ‘good person’ is not what will get you into heaven. This is taught in the OT as well as the NT. Jews and Christians only differ on who the Messiah is. Christians say he already came – Jews are still looking. Keep in mind all of the original Christians were Jewish.

The Law is there simply to help show us that we are sinners. In the OT, most didn’t really understand this. They tried to be ‘religious’ and do the ‘right things’. But the system clearly did not work. No man (aside from Jesus) is without sin or capable of being ‘good enough’.

To make this point, Jesus told his disciples, if you want to earn your way to heaven, it is pretty simple – just be perfect as my Father in Heaven is perfect. That had to get them worried… He went on about the law: You shall not murder. Most of us would think, hey, I’m doing fine here, I’ve never murdered anyone… But then Jesus says “if you hate your brother, you have committed murder in your heart”. Concerning the law about not committing adultery, Jesus says, if you even lust for another woman in your heart, you are guilty of adultery. Now he really has his disciples attention. Another fun one that would have annoyed the current Religious Leaders of the time was this: “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to earn his way to Heaven”. He continues drilling this concept into them until the point is clear – “I can’t do it on my own”.