14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[d]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[e] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
So if we take this whole portion in context. A change in heart (faith) preceded the deeds of those who believed. Belief comes (and not just belief), but a saving faith that leads to repentance and doing God’s will (which can only come about by being “born of water AND the spirit”).
Bottom line: only God can draw us to Himself by convicting us of your sin (which we are totally wicked Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”), that we need a savior and need to God to cause us to be “born again” and to submit to His lordship and then receiving salvation.
We are saved by Grace through Faith. And it doesn’t contradict James 2:14-25. We know that God never lies (unlike us) so He cannot contradict Himself.
-JS
Yes. Saved by Grace through Faith. But NOT Faith alone. That belief does directly contradict Scripture.