It is certainly what God aims at in the disposition of things in redemption, (if we allow the Scriptures to be a revelation of God’s mind) that God should appear full, and man in himself empty, that God should appear all, and man nothing. It is God’s declared design that others should not “glory in his presence;” which implies that it is his design to advance his own comparative glory. So much the more man glories in God’s presence, so much the less glory is ascribed to God.
By its being thus ordered, that the creature should have so absolute and universal a dependence on God, provision is made that God should have our whole souls, and should be the object of our undivided respect. If we had our dependence partly on God, and partly on something else, man’s respect would be divided to those different things on which he had dependence. Thus it would be if we depended on God only for a part of our good, and on ourselves, or some other being, for another part: or if we had our good only from God, and through another that was not God, and in something else distinct from both, our hearts would be divided between the good itself, and him from whom, and him through whom, we received it. But now there is no occasion for this, God being not only he from or of whom we have all good, but also through whom, and is that good itself, that we have from him and through him. So that whatsoever there is to attract our respect, the tendency is still directly towards God, all unites in him as the centre. (Jonathan Edwards, God Glorified in Man’s Dependence)
It is utterly vital to see what Luther and Edwards teach on this issue. Luther blasts away at ‘free-will’ because he knows that salvation is by grace alone and as long as human souls rest in any amount in their ‘free-will’ they will not look to grace alone. Edwards is setting out how vital it is that human beings should depend totally on God and be in utter dependence upon Him. He does this for the same reasons that Luther does, though in a different way. As long as human souls have any dependence on themselves (‘free-will’ is depending on self for something), they are not depending totally on God and His grace.
The human soul is born dead in sin and trespasses. The very nature of sin is seen in its pride and independence as it lives for itself and by itself. The human soul wants to depend on itself rather than God which is the soul doing what it does to its own glory which is sin (Rom 3:23). This is one reason why God hates self-righteousness so much. It is not that human beings can earn righteousness in and of themselves, but it is the human soul trying to be righteous in its own strength and being independent of God which is the soul trying to be like God. God alone is self-existent and thus has no need of anyone or anything other than Himself. He has created human beings in total dependence upon Himself for anything spiritual or good, yet they have struck out on their own in an effort to depend on themselves. This is what Eve did when she looked upon the fruit and saw that it was desirable to make one wise (Genesis 3).
The Gospel is not just God’s effort to save men from hell, but the Gospel is the way of God to save men from their own dependence on self and to depend on Him entirely. The Gospel comes to sinners who are totally unable to save themselves in any way or to contribute the smallest thing to their salvation. If the sinner has one little spot of power in him or her that is good enough to do one thing apart from God, then salvation is not totally and utterly of God and the sinner is not in utter dependence upon God and His grace alone.
While some may thing God is egotistical in being like that, the reality of the matter is that it describes God for who He really is. He is absolutely sovereign and He is absolutely self-existent in all ways. There is no source of good or of spiritual life or power that does not come from Him. When man tries to assert his ‘free-will’ or independence, man is lying about the reality of who God is and who man is. The Gospel in reality brings proud man to his knees and on his face in turning him from any hope in self or any dependence in self. Grace is not God’s helping man out in places where man cannot help himself, but grace is God stripping man of any hope in self and turning man back to an utter dependence on Him. The doctrine of ‘free-will’ is nothing more than an act of defiance in independence on man’s part in the face of God who alone is independent. How sinners must be brought off of any dependence on themselves in any way (including any hope or dependence on their so-called ‘free-will’) in order to depend totally on God and His grace alone. Until the sinner is resting in grace alone apart from himself in all ways that sinner is not trusting in Christ alone and is rebellion against God and the Gospel of God.
God Loves... Himself 
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