I can tell you the reason why God loved Jacob; It is sovereign grace. There was nothing in Jacob that could make God love him; there was everything about him, that might have made God hate him as much as he did Esau, and a great deal more. But it was because God was infinitely gracious, that he loved Jacob, and because he was sovereign in his dispensation of this grace, that he chose Jacob to the object of that love.

from Spurgeon's sermon Jacob and Esau

Grace is...

the unmerited operation of God in the heart of man, effected through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

from Louis Berkhof's Systematic Theology

Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares.…

Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness that frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

from The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer