[ealgeone]

The Greek in Romans 5, having been justified, is an aorist, participle, passive verb.

What's key here is the passive tense of this participle.

The meaning is the subject, that is the individual who is being justified, is being acted upon by an outside force, in this case God.

It is He Who justifies us....there is nothing we can do but have faith.

The passive tense is used a number of time by Paul in Romans to convey this message.

In Romans 3:24 the passive tense is used again in the phrase "being justified".

In Ephesians 2:8, the word saved is also in the passive tense. It is clear in this passage it is by His grace we are saved through faith.

Paul further clarifies this by noting it is not of yourselves nor works so none may boast.

IF there was some work we could do or had to do it would give us room to boast.

But as this is His grace that allows us to be saved through faith and not works, then it can only be by faith alone we are saved.

The Scriptures don't contradict themselves.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

In the end, God opens the eyes of those who seek him.

Those who don’t seek truth, but instead to justify their own religion or works, remain in darkness and are never justified, nor know Him.

[Petrosius]

But you leave out that in Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians what Paul is contrasting faith to in not the keeping of the moral law of God, but of circumcision and the Mosaic Law separated Jew and gentile.

You were running well; who hindered you from following [the] truth? That enticement does not come from the one who called you. A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. I am confident of you in the Lord that you will not take a different view, and that the one who is troubling you will bear the condemnation, whoever he may be. As for me, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. Would that those who are upsetting you might also castrate themselves! (Galatians 5:7-12)

That the keeping of the moral law is necessary Paul makes clear:

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

Of course there are also the many parables of our Lord that warn about the judgment of one's works. And as you said: "The Scriptures don't contradict themselves." Therefore the false idea of "faith alone" is disproven by Scripture.