Romans 3:27-28

[hawkflint]

Romans 3:27-28,"Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of instruction? Of works? No, but by a instruction of faith. We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the ."

There is an internal transformation, a new creation, within us caused by God, and this is it. God causes this transformation to come about by His Spirit, and this shows that salvation is not a matter of works, but by He who calls.
The Spirit causes our core beliefs to change from our ways to God's ways (Ezekiel 36:26-27). This is putting on "the new man" (Ephesians 4:22-24); the coming of faith that changes our deepest beliefs (which will change the very way we live if the faith is genuine). Thus, the Spirit leads us to faith (which is only part of the Spirit's instruction).
Paul says in Romans 10:17,"...faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." So we hear the Word of God first, then believe it (faith), and are justified.
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

But then we will want to live out our belief in righteous living, proving our faith and righteousness.
But why will we want to live righteously? Because our ways are evil, and God's ways are righteous.
The Word of God commands us to have faith in Christ, thus, we do the Word of God by believing. But our belief then, if we believe the Word of God to be true, tells us that our ways are evil, and that we were condemned because of them. So if we agree with God that our ways are evil, and that our ways condemned us, we will want to adopt some ways that will  not condemn us. God's ways are the ways we are going to find if we want ways that don't condemn us. "...For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous walk in them..." (Hosea 14:9). And,"...it isn’t the hearers of the who are righteous before God, but the doers of the will be justified" (Romans 2:13).
We were led to this faith by the Spirit's instruction, but the problem we have a problem here is that we can't be saved by faith and then say that we are saved by works. If "...it isn’t the hearers of the who are righteous before God, but the doers of the [who] will be justified" (Romans 2:13), but "...a man is justified by faith apart from...works..." (Romans 3:28)...then, seemingly, we have a contradiction.
The same problem is presented in James 2:14- 24, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works. Can faith save him?...Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. Yes, a man will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder. But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead? Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness'; and he was called the friend of God. You see then that by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith."
This teaching seemingly teaches a works based salvation. But it does not. And this,
"...it isn’t the hearers of the who are righteous before God, but the doers of the will be justified" (Romans 2:13).
So we must do the , but we are not saved by doing it? Even though He just said that the doers of the are the ones who will be justified? But there is a connection between other writings of Paul;
"...we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake" (Romans 1:5)
So there is an obedience that is "of," or rather, "from" faith. And then,

[hawkflint]

"For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard" (Hebrews 4:2).

The words "it wasn’t mixed with faith" is the connection. The Israelites had the Word of God, but no faith. Many professing Christians today have faith, but no works to prove it.
As I said before, our belief then, if we believe the Word of God to be true, tells us that our ways are evil, and that we were condemned because of them. So if we agree with God that our ways are evil, and that our ways condemned us, we will want to adopt some ways that will not condemn us. We will want to change our ways.
So our faith (belief in the Word of God), let's us know that our ways condemned us and our ways are/were evil (because that's what the bible teaches), and we will want to change our ways to ways that won't condemn us (for who wants to stay in condemnation?), and since God's ways do not condemn us, and are the ways that God wants us to walk in, we will then change our ways to God's ways.
And Abraham was having his faith tested, to have it shown that it was genuine faith, one that would, and in this case did, produce works. Abraham, when offering up his son, believed that God could even raise Issac from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19). And so his faith, being mixed with works, being perfected, showed that his faith was genuine; that perfect genuine faith that God gives freely to those whom He has chosen-the kind that produces works.
James and Paul do not contradict each other; they both preach a faith that proceeds and produces works.
Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9,"...by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast."
That faith results in a change of ways:"...put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and...be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth" (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Our "renewing" is the transformation that is faith, which changes our ways to God's ways. Thus, we produce good (works of the ) fruit in keeping with repentance from our old evil ways.
The obedience, though, to God's commandments is not done out of a worthless legalism, but is done out of obedience. Notice that Paul do says obedience of faith, not legalism.

[hawkflint]

This is the Law of Faith