"He loved me, and gave Himself for me..."

Martin Downes has an excellent post regarding how the truth of 'penal substitution' (that Christ's death was his substituting for us, taking the penalty we deserved) is an expression of God's amazing love.

Here's an excerpt -- a quote from J.I. Packer:

The notion which the phrase ‘penal substitution’ expresses is that Jesus Christ our Lord, moved by a love that was determined to do everything necessary to save us, endured and exhausted the destructive divine judgment for which we were otherwise inescapably destined, and so won us forgiveness, adoption and glory. To affirm penal substitution is to say that believers are in debt to Christ specifically for this, and that this is the mainspring of all their joy, peace and praise both now and for eternity.