The continuity of Jesus’s teachings with those of Judaism are reflected primarily in his theology proper (the teaching about God). As the Gospels reveal, he affirmed the unity of the God of Israel, which is in line with the great Jewish confession of faith Sh’ma (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:28; John 17:3). He also confirmed and repeatedly insisted on the abiding value and the binding force of Moses’s Law as preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures (Matthew 5:18; 19:17). He himself believed in and quoted from the Jewish sacred books (Luke 4:1-12). Jesus upheld the tripartite division of the Hebrew Bible (the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms) in accordance with the traditional rabbinic conception of Scripture (Luke 24:44). Last but not least, Jesus built his teachings upon the Old Testament ideas such as the Messiah, the sacrifice, the covenant, the repentance, the judgment, the life to come, and the resurrection, to name a few.
Secondarily, Jesus’s Jewish upbringing is reflected in his life and practice. As a Jewish child, he was circumcised on the 8th day (Luke 2:21). He worshiped and taught in the synagogues and in the Temple (Mark 1:21; Luke 2:46). He celebrated the Jewish feasts (Luke 4:16; Luke 22:8-15). He preached and sent his disciples exclusively to the covenant community of Israel, which is what would have been expected of the Jewish prophet addressing God’s chosen people.
However, on some crucial points, Jesus’s teachings departed from traditional Jewish belief system. While unambiguously affirming the Law of Moses, Jesus emphasized its original spiritual function of bringing man to conformity with God’s will and its focus on the good of man (Mark 2:27). He seriously warned some practitioners of rabbinic teachings against excessive, rigoristic adherence to the minutia of the Law to the detriment of other people’s well-being (Mark 3:23-28; Luke 13:10-16). He also pointed out that rabbinic interpretation was not on par with the God-inspired Word (Matthew 15:1-9). While traditional Judaism focused on national election of and God’s favor towards Israel in virtue of them being physical descendants of Abraham, Jesus emphasized the need of a personal faith regardless of the individual’s origin or social status (Matthew 8:11-12; John 8:39). But the greatest divergence of Jesus’s teachings from those of his day’s Judaism was probably his doctrine of the Messiah. While traditional Judaism conceived of the Messiah as the powerful ruler and military leader whose main function would be to destroy Israel’s oppressors and to re-establish the Jewish theocracy in the Land of the Promise, Jesus primarily taught about the suffering Messiah who would bear the sins of the Jewish people and the rest of the world, thus securing God’s forgiveness and reconciliation with humanity (Mark 10:45).
There are certain Jewish practices that Christianity still shares with Judaism as a reflection of Jesus’s experience. Christians pray to the God of Israel just as Jesus did and taught in the famous Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). The church preaches God’s Word just as it was the synagogue’s practice in Jesus’s days and just as his own practice was (Luke 15:15-21). The greatest sacraments of the Christian church, baptism and communion, have roots in the Jewish customs. The first one is the epitome and fulfillment of various Old Testament (and rabbinic) rites of ablution (Numbers 19; Ezekiel 36:25; Mark 7:4; Luke 3:21; John 3:22; Hebrews 10:22). The second one is the reflection and the reinterpretation of the Passover meal (Exodus 12:1-20; 1 Corinthians 11:26, the wine of the communion being reflective of the wine of the Passover Seder, added to the festive meal by the Jewish tradition; cf. Luke 22:20).
Among the Jewish practices that were specifically altered or ceased to be observed with Christianity we can single out circumcision and bloody sacrifices. Many Christian denominations believe that circumcision as the sign of the covenant with God was superseded by baptism (Colossians 2:11), although this connection is not absolutely clear from the text of the New Testament, and there remains much room for debate. Still, both of the rites symbolize commitment to God, being cleansed and belonging to the community of the elect (Genesis 17:13-14; Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 3:21). As for the Old Testament bloody sacrifices, they find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross. Of him it is said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) As he himself summarized it, “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26:28)
The reason the two Jewish rites were altered is that, according to the New Testament, with the coming of Jesus they acquired a new, deeper spiritual meaning. As the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews states:
“For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect... For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:1-4)
Both circumcision and bloody sacrifices are, in the mind of a Christian theologian, “a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things.” That is why the new takes precedence over the old.
The role of the apostle Paul in the development of the Christian religion cannot be underestimated. He can be rightly credited with expounding and revealing the depth of Jesus’s teachings. His main contributions to Christian theology are his teachings about the church (the relations between the Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Jesus) and his dialectic of the law and grace.
Paul clarified that the Jewish ceremonial law was not binding upon the non-Jewish believers in Jesus. That is, in order for a Gentile to become a Christian, he or she does not need to become a convert to Judaism in the first place (Colossians 3:11; Ephesians 2:11-18). Furthermore, the apostle showed that the Old Testament Law as a whole could not be the means of man’s reconciliation with God. Jesus’s sacrifice achieves what the Law could not do. As man’s substitute, Jesus fulfills in his earthly life, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession God’s requirements of righteousness which is imputed to all who would believe in Jesus. All these ideas were not Paul’s invention but rather a development and extension of what Jesus himself initially proclaimed.
Sometimes doubts are expressed as to whether Christianity would even exist today without Paul. We need to remember, however, that for him, Jesus was central to the religion that he preached:
“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2)
“Is Christ divided? Was Paul then crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13)
“For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ our Lord; and ourselves your servants through Jesus.” (2 Corinthians 4:5)
Jesus’s teachings contained the seed of that which in Paul became a full-fledged doctrine. And it would be better to call Paul the greatest expounder of Christianity as it was initially preached by Jesus rather than its second founder.
Further reading:
You ask a number of questions here. I will help you to answer the one about Jesus' identity as a Jew and how that influenced his teachings.
It is important to remember that although he is the founder of Christianity, Jesus did not practice this religion. Instead, he lived by the tenets of the Judaism of his time. He followed the precepts of the Torah, paid tithes to the Temple, was circumcised, and followed many of the laws laid out in the Tenach.
During Jesus' time, there were many debates about the meaning of Judaism. It was unclear if the religion could be truly practiced under Roman rule or if Roman rule necessitated rebellion. Debates about what the religion required one to do concerning issues of justice, duty, and mercy were also frequent. Jesus leaned into these debates and stories from the Gospels frequently bring up these issues as part of Jesus' teachings.
One interesting aspect of Jesus' teachings that reflects his identity as a Jew is that he never claimed (at least as recorded in the Gospels) to be the son of God. Nowhere in Jewish tradition does it identify the Messiah as the son of God and Jesus did not either. That idea would have been foreign, even anathema, to the Jewish community. Messiah simply means "anointed one". He is the chosen person who would prepare the way for the Kingdom of God, not be a god himself. If we look at the teachings of Jesus, we can see that he was attempting to lay the moral and philosophical groundwork required for the Kingdom of God. However, he departs somewhat from traditional Jewish teachings by saying that this kingdom is within us, instead of existing externally to the person.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/09/christianity-judaism
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