Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us
The Gospel flows from the very nature and glory of God rather than the merit or worth of man. It only makes sense, then, for God to be focused or centered on Himself and His own glory rather than for God to be focused or centered on man. The text (v. 6) is specific and clear. God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace. How does the sinner obtain this grace? Does s/he try to merit it or work up some form or kind of worth in any way? No, verse 6 goes on to say that this is freely bestowed on sinners in the Beloved. The word “free” is an interesting word with more meanings than meets the eye at first thought. The word “free” can mean without cost, but it can also have the idea of without cause. In other words, for God to saves sinners by grace alone because of His glory alone there can be no cost and nothing in the sinner to move God to save them. In fact, the word for “free” in this case has the same root as the word “grace” does.
For those who love the great and glorious doctrines that flow from and manifest the grace of God, a slight (or more) chill moving up and down the spine is not out of the ordinary. God saves sinners by grace alone and in giving this grace there is nothing but Himself and His grace that moves Him to give grace. But again it is seen that God is focused on God and is moved within Himself in all He does. When we say (with understanding) that God saves by grace alone, what we mean is that God saves because of who He is and not because of anything found in the sinner. The glorious doctrine of grace teaches us that God is God-centered and is not centered upon man at all. When human beings try to find a reason other than God Himself to show grace, they end up in thinking of things like the value and worth of man. But why would God look to the value and worth of man rather than His own value and worth? If God saves because of something in man rather than Himself, salvation is no longer of grace alone, but is conditioned on something in man.
It is in Christ that all of redemption is located. Redemption is totally in the blood of Christ and forgiveness is totally based on the forgiveness in Christ. Redemption and forgiveness is found in Christ and Christ alone and is by grace alone. God saves sinners because of Himself and His grace and this is seen because all merit and worth for salvation are merited and earned by Christ alone. All the merit needed for sins to be forgiven is in Christ and given by grace alone. All the righteousness needed to be declared just is in Christ and there is nothing that a sinner can possibly add to that. The sinner can do nothing and must not try to do anything at all but is simply to receive. When sinners look to themselves for any merit or anything found in them that would move God to save them, they are not looking to grace alone. When sinners look to themselves for an act of faith that God will then act and save them, they are not looking to grace alone. When sinners pray to God and ask Him to save, forgive, or give them something based on what they have done, they are not looking to grace alone.
The text of Scripture (verse 7 above) tells us that sinners are forgiven “according to the riches of His grace.” This tells us that sinners are to rest in forgiveness and/or seek forgiveness based on His grace and His grace alone. It is not that sinners are to seek forgiveness based on something called grace that is apart from God, but it is His grace and His grace alone. In other words, it is not just something called grace that saves, but it is God Himself who saves. The word “grace” refers to the fact that God saves based on who He is as opposed to saving based on who sinners are. After all, sinners have to be saved despite who they are rather than who they are. So God must save based on Himself rather than them. The Gospel is all about the glory and grace of God which is to say it is all about how God saves based on Himself and love for His own glory. As long as human beings think that God is human-centered, they have no basis for the Gospel. As long as human beings think that God is human-centered, they worship an idol and not the real God. It is only right that God would do all out of love for Himself and His own glory. The true Gospel depends on that truth as well.
God Loves... Himself 
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