Romans 1:17 says the gospel is the faith that becomes our faith. The faith that we have in Christ should be like the faith Christ had in the Father while He was here on Earth. We read about the faith of Christ in the Gospel. All of Christ's works came from faith and so should ours.
Faith is more than mere belief. Faith is a motivator. It motivates us towards action. If we believe that the street is safe to cross, our faith will motivate us to cross the street. If we believe that the Son of God gave up His life, so that we might gain eternal life, then our faith will motivate us to devote our life�s completely to Him. Our service to God is the rational response of seeing how Christ serves us through His Father�s mercy (Romans 12:1). Faith motivates us to renew the thinking in our mind (Romans 12:2).
The works we do are NOT our works, but the works God prepared for us to walk in. They come by faith, not by ourselves, that we should boast (Ephesians 2:8-10). If we are doing the works for ourselves, we are lost. If they all come from a faith in Christ and we do everything for Him (Colossians 3:17), we will be saved by that faith that produced the works, but not by the works themselves.
If our faith doesn't produce works, we won't be condemned for no works, but we WILL be condemned for having a dead faith that produced no works (James 2)
Paul and James were looking at two sides of the same coin when talking about faith and works. Paul condemned works without it coming from faith, especially the works of the Law of Moses that were obeyed checklist-style without faith (Galatians 3:11-12). James condemned a faith that didn't motivate us to act (James 2).