Jesus paid on the cross for us. We are redeemed from sin to a new relationship with God and a new life of Love, by our own appropriation of that atonement. His blood sacrifice is the ransom paid for our deliverance. He took our sinful nature upon Himself in order that He might satisfy the demands of the law. His sacrifice is accepted as the payment for the debt the sinner owes to God, and His death is accepted as the full payment for the individual's deliverance.
Love is the center of the cross and the cross is always at the center of Love.
God's motivation, in all He does, always comes from Love, because He, Himself, is Love . Love is the reason God created us in the first place and Love is the only key to our locked identity. God does not exist for the sake of man. We were created for His pleasure. This is the very heart of God's redemption.