If by grace you mean the possibility of knowing God and be saved thus, and by love you mean the fact that the option of knowing God is inherent in the very fabric of Universe, then I agree that grace and love come first. However, no one is saved before they are graced by grace, so to speak. In plain language it simply means unambiguous knowledge of God. That's an "event" that can be pinpointed in time and space for every individual. It's an on-off switch. Before you believe, afterward you stop believing because you know and, of course, you behave accordingly. But at this point you already do, you just also see why is such particular behavior beneficent.
Similarly, predestination only means that for some people it is easier to come to God than it is for others. That mostly depends on where in causal streams that run all the way back to the moment of manifestation of this Universe one happens to be. Free will is unaffected by that. The choice made is always free, no matter how biased or otherwise influenced. Technically even e.g. Hitler could come to God, it was merely insanely improbable. His background and life experiences shaped him in a way that made it so (and have no doubt, the choices he did make were free too — he always had the possibility to backtrack, but opted to double down instead).
When it comes to "work." Perhaps a better word would be "effort" as most of Ten Words are about what not to do, so it's more about restraining oneself than an actual positive action (even though e.g. contemplation of Lord's prayer, or keeping Shabbat are active). In that sense I agree that it's not about working toward bonus points on some socially agreed upon moral balance sheet. Such "pious credit" does not mean a thing, especially if one does it with the intention of meritocratically earning one's "place in heaven" -- it does not work that way. But the inner "work" is necessary. And that inner work is summed up in Ten Words famously condensed by Jesus in (two) great commands (referencing Pentateuch). After all, Ten Words are the everlasting covenant.
You even have Jesus saying (emphasis mine), "everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock," while he famously proclaimed that the Law (Ten Words) will be valid till the end of Universe. I sort of don't understand why you rely on opinions of a self-appointed apostle, who clearly had an urge to prove himself among the clergy, or men who were notorious for getting Jesus wrong. There are not many actual quotations of Jesus in NT, but I would suggest you rather listen to him, then his "official" interpreters.
