Packer on the Freedom of God's Grace

Ancient paganism thought of each god as bound to his worshipers by bonds of self-interest, because he depended on their service and gifts for his welfare. Modern paganism has at the back of its mind a similar feeling that God is somehow obliged to love and help us, little though we deserve it. This was the feeling voice by the French freethinker who died muttering, "God will forgive - that's his job." But this feeling is not well founded. The God of the Bible does not depend on his human creatures for his well being (see Ps 50:8-13; Acts 17:25), nor, now that we have sinned, is he bound to show us favor.

We can only claim from his justice - and justice, for us, means certain condemnation. God does not owe it to anyone to stop justice taking its course. He is not obliged to pity and pardon; if he does so it is an act done, as we say, "of his own free will," and nobody forces his hand. "It does not depend on man's will or effort, but on God's mercy" (Romans 9:16 NEB). Grace is free, in the sense of being self-originated and of proceeding from One who was free not to be gracious. Only when it is seen that what decides each individual's destiny is whether or not God resolves to save him from his sins, and that this is a decision which God need not make in any single case, can one begin to grasp the biblical view of grace.

-Knowing God, p132-133