Why did Christ come?

“There are two distinct views of salvation entertained by professing Christians. Correspondingly, there are two distinct classes of believers, often within the same church. The one class of believers sees the Gospel as a salvation from sin. They think more of this aspect of the Gospel and value it more than the hope of heaven or of earth. The great thing with them is to realize the idea of deliverance from sin. This is the charm and glory of the Gospel. They seek freedom from sin more than to be saved from hell. They care more to be saved from sin itself than from its consequences. They think and pray very little about the consequences of sin. It is their glory and their joy that Christ was sent to deliver them from their bondage in iniquity, to lift them up from their wretched state and give them the liberty of love. This they labor to realize; this is to them the Good News of Gospel salvation.

“Believers in the other class are mostly anxious to be saved from hell. The punishment due for sin is the thing they chiefly fear. In fact, fear has been mainly the reason for their religious efforts. The Gospel is not thought of as a means of deliverance from sin, but as a great system that takes away the fear and danger of damnation, though it leaves them still in their sin. They seem not to notice that a scheme of salvation that removes the fear of damnation for sin, that leaves them still in their sins to live for themselves, and that maintains the belief that Christ will in the end bring them to heaven (despite their having lived in sin all their days), is a compromise on a most magnificent scale. By virtue of it, the whole church is expected to wallow on in sin through life, and be no less sure of heaven in the end.

“You will find these opposing views everywhere as you go among the churches. Many people in the church are altogether worldly and selfish; they live conformed to the world and negligent of their duties.”—Charles Finney, God's Call, pages 220-221