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"If the Church is "true" Israel, then would not striving to keep the Law as God commanded Israel to do in the Old Testament be evidence of election?"

While the Law was given to the Jews it revealed to them they could not measure up to God's standards. God, OTOH, revealed Himself to Gentiles through the world although they would not acknowledge Him as God. The Jews had the law. The Gentile had nature. But no one does what is righteous-not one.

So what value is the Law? To show us no one is justified in God's sight. You cannot keep the Law. This is the message of Romans 1-4.

So what value is the Law? To show us no one is justified in God's sight.

That is one purpose. The Torah is also to tell us what is sin and what is holy and just and good (Rom. 7:7-13). Therefore, you are left with two choices:

1) That the Church is not synonimous with Israel, and is therefore not necessarily bound by all the commands which God said were eternal commands for Israel, or
2) That by not keeping the commandments that God set for Israel (the Sabbath, for just one example), you are deliberately sinning, and need to repent of that.

Perhaps instead of cherry-picking a couple of quotes to support your theology, you should make a concentrated of everything the Scriptures have to say about God's Law. You might find a few surprises, like, "The Torah of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making the simple wise" (Ps. 19:7) and "Do we then make the Torah void through faith? Let it not be! But we establish (uphold) the Torah" (Rom. 3:31).

And on that note, an early Shabbat Shalom to everyone. I've got to leave early to do the prison thing this weekend.