In Proverbs 3:5-7, we have a choice between leaning on our own understanding of right and wrong by doing what is right in our own eyes or trusting in God with all of our heart to correctly divide between right and wrong through obeying what He has instructed, and He will make our paths straight. So choosing the latter is what it means to have faith, that is why faith without works is dead, and going from the former to the latter is what it means to repent, so repentance is inherently acting in faith.
In Matthew 4:15-23, Jesus began his ministry with the Gospel message to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, which was a light to the Gentiles, and God's law is how his audience knew what sin is (Romans 3:20), so repenting and returning to obedience to God's law is a central part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is precisely what James was encouraging them to do in James 2:1-11.
While it is true that Abraham believed God, so he was justified (Genesis 15:6), it is also true that he believed God, so he obeyed God's command to offer Isaac (Hebrews 11:17), so the same faith by which he was justified was also in obedience to God, but he did not earn his justification by his obedience as a wage (Romans 4:1-5). Paul also said that only doers of the law will be justified (Romans 2:13), so there must be a reason why our justification requires us to choose to be doers of the law other than in order to earn it as a wage, such as faith insofar the same faith by which we are justified also upholds God's law (Romans 3:31). In James 2:21-24, he quoted Genesis 15:6 to support saying that Abraham was justified by his works when he offered Isaac, his faith was alive along with his works, and his faith complete his works, so he was justified by his works insofar as they were the way to have faith, but not insofar as they were earning a wage.
Jesus is Jewish, so the correct understanding of his work is a Jewish understanding.
While Grace is a gift and gifts are incompatible with works done to earn a wage (Romans 11:6), works can be done for many other reasons that are compatible with grace, which is why there are many verses that connect grace and works. For example, in Psalms 119:29-30, he wanted to put false ways far from him, for God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey His law, and he chose the way of faithfulness by setting God's law before him, so this has always been the one and only way of salvation by grace through faith. In Exodus 33:13, Moses wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him to walk in His way that he might know Him, in 1 Kings 2:1-3, God taught how to walk in His way through His law, and in John 17:3, eternal life is knowing God and Jesus, which is again salvation by grace through faith. In Genesis 6:8-9, Noah found grace in the eyes of God, he was a righteous man, and he walked with God, so God was gracious to him by teaching him how to walk in His way in obedience to His law and he was righteous because he obeyed through faith. In Romans 1:5, we have received grace in order to bring about the obedience of faith. In Titus 2:11-14, our salvation is described as being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to renounce doing what is ungodly, so we do not need to first done those works in order to produce our salvation and we do not produce those works as the result of having first been saved, but rather God graciously teaching us to do those works is itself part of the content of His gift of salvation.
Our salvation is from sin (Matthew 1:21) and sin is the transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4). so while we do not earn our salvation as a wage by obeying it, living in obedience to it through faith in Jesus is intrinsically part of the concept of him saving us from not living in obedience to it. So living in obedience to God's law can't be removed from the concept of being saved from not living in obedience to it, which is why there can't be an affirmative answer to the question in James 2:14.
If you agree that we are justified by faith, then what grounds do you have for claiming that the examples of faith listed in Hebrews 11 are not justifying, especially when Hebrews 11:17 lists the work of offering Isaac as being an example of faith and James 2:21-24 says that he was justified when he did that work?
In Jeremiah 9:3 and 9:6, they did not know God and refuse to know Him because in 9:13, they had forsaken His law, while in 9:24, those who know God know that he delights in practicing steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in all of the earth, so delighting in practicing those and other aspects of God's nature in obedience to His law is the way to know Him, and the way to know Jesus because he is the exact image of God's nature (Hebrews 1:3). Likewise, in 1 John 2:4, those who say that they know Jesus, but don't obey His commands are liars, in in 1 John 3:4-6, those who continue to practice sin in transgression of God's law have neither seen nor known him, so again knowing God and Jesus is the goal of the law, which is eternal life.
However, people can go through the motions of obeying God's law while missing its goal of teaching us to practice aspects of His nature, and thus be counted as workers of lawlessness in accordance with Matthew 7:21-23. For example, in Matthew 23:23, Jesus said tithing was something that they ought to be doing while not neglecting weightier matters of the law of justice, mercy, and faithfulness. In Philippians 3:8, Paul had been in the same situation, where he had been obeying God's law while not being focused on knowing Jesus, so he had been missing the whole goal of the law, and that is what he counted as rubbish.
