Respectfully, your reasoning with regard to the holiness of Christ is flawed. He is not holy "because" He followed He Father's instructions perfectly. He is holy because He is God. He began in a state of perfect holiness and never left it by reason of sin.
The Pharisees were never holy; they began in a state of unholiness and sought to attain holiness by following the Law. They didn't grasp that following the Law didn't (and couldn't) make them holy.
The reasoning that follows is also flawed by over-generalization. You speak of "the modern priesthood" and "mainstream religion". Who are these nameless "modern priests" who allegedly have such vast influence? Where would one find this "mainstream religion" that allegedly teaches what you decry? Have you been to such churches? How would you know what is taught in churches you don't attend or follow? Consider whether you would accept being identified together with "legalists" and "Judaizers".
I have been to churches, and I have studied their doctrines just as I have studied yours. So your assumption that I don't know what they, or by extension, you preach is not accurate.
You are a perfect example of modern religious influence on man. I mean no disrespect, just replying to your posts.
"... I see the Law as historical. It does inform how I live my life, but I don't consider obedience to it to be part of the Christian life-not for salvation, not for sanctification, not for God's blessings or favour."
The Christ said: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that Proceeds from God", as He lived. Does this mean God is pleased by those who Have His Sayings, but refuses to follow them? "Historically, is God pleased with those who obey Him? Or disobey Him? I can see a stark disconnect in your statement above, and the very Word's of God the Christ says we are to live by. No disrespect intended, can you see my point?
2 Tim. 3:
16 All scripture
is given by inspiration of God, and
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction,
for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
But if a person has been convinced the scriptures don't really matter, then what good are they.
There are "many" who believe Jesus was not human at all, but a God. That He had supernatural powers none of us have. So when the going got a little rough He just kicked in some superpowers no one else has. I don't believe the implication of this religious doctrine that He didn't really resist sin, and struggled as do we all. That He had nothing to lose by offering Himself as a human sacrifice, or the implication that He wasn't even human.
You imply that God created Him as a robot, not capable of leaning on His own understanding as the rest of us, not capable of making a wrong choice as the rest of us.
I don't believe the Christ "cheated" in His Role as a human being in our Salvation. I don't believe He was any different than Adam, other than the choices He made. I don't believe He instructed us to "Walk even as He walked" knowing we are not God's but He is. My Savior is not a hypocrite or a cheater or cruel. What He did as a human was a great thing worthy of a great reward, and He promises the same reward of others who Choose Him and His Path over the religions of the land.
Your description of the Mainstream Preachers of Christ's time also goes against the very Word's of the Christ.
"The Pharisees were never holy; they began in a state of unholiness and sought to attain holiness
by following the Law. They didn't grasp that following the Law didn't (and couldn't) make them holy."
The OT scriptures surely don't teach this doctrine.
This is another Mainstream teaching that is opposite of what the Christ taught.
Matt. 15:
7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with
their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9 But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men.
John 8:
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
John 7:
19 Did not Moses give you the law,
and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me
Matt. 23:
4 For they (Pharisees, not God as many preach)
bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay
them on men's shoulders; but they
themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Matt. 23:
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin,
and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done,
and not to leave the other undone.
I have not even posted all the old testament scriptures which prophesy of a Priesthood which is exactly opposite of the one you preach here.
Yet religious man, to promote their religious traditions, reject all these scriptures and choose to twist a sentence from Paul instead to prove obeying God is somehow against God.
Rom. 9:
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Wherefore? Because
they sought it not by faith,
but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Religious man refuses to understand that the Pharisees didn't Love the God of the OT, therefore they didn't believe in His Son. So they continued in their own version of the sacrificial "Levitical Priesthood "Works of the Law" for justification of sins even after the Messiah had come.
Mainstream Christianity preaches that their version of this scripture over powers, and supersedes all that the Christ and the Prophets revealed about the corrupt Priests which led God's people astray. The very reason for the New Covenant according to His Word.
Preaching just the opposite of the same Christ, they claimed has saved them, by preaching the Pharisees were "Following the Law" not omitting, breaking and transgressing the Law as the Christ and the Prophets clearly teaches.
There was a Jew who tried to please God by following His Instructions. His name was Zechariahs. You can read about him in Luke 1. Note that he knew the Christ when He came, but the Pharisees didn't.
So I expect by your posts that you will not acknowledge any of these things. That even though the scriptures bring these doctrines into question, it will not matter. I hope to be proven wrong on this point. But it didn't matter to the Mainstream Preachers of Christ's time, and the Christ said it would matter to "many" today.
I believe it should.
in closing, you asked a question:
"Where would one find this "mainstream religion" that allegedly teaches what you decry?"
My brother, just read your own posts.