Bkmk
From the OP: “Salvation cannot be obtained by our personal merit. Thank God , because there is not one of us who could ever merit salvation. We cannot earn it, nor can we who have received the gift, ever lose it due to lack of merit.”
I think most everyone would agree with you that salvation cannot be merited. The problem arises when people try to lump obedience to the will of God with meritorious works.
Never, ever in the Bible did obedience to God’s will merit God’s grace but obedience is a condition that God places upon His free grace.
Belief/faith therefore is an act of obedience that is a necessary condition to receive grace but does not merit grace.
There is a difference between obedience and works of merit:
John 6:27 “Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall GIVE unto you: for him the Father, even God, hath sealed.”
According to John 6:27 eternal life is a free gift that Christ “gives” yet Christ said to “work” for it. In the context, belief is the work given to man by God that man must do to have eternal life. Hence the free gift that Christ ‘gives’ is CONDITIONAL upon man doing the obedient work of believing. As long as man CONDITONALLY CONTINUES to do this work of believing he will maintain access to God’s grace, Romans 5:2. If one quits doing this conditional work then he loses the only access to grace.