We are saved by grace through faith. When you identify the "grace" and the "faith" there is no contridiction. Every bible church I have ever been to deals with these issues on a fairly regular basis so that people don't deceive themselves.
Generally belief precedes actions. The one tells about the nature of the other. For instance if a person really believed that they were declared righteous by the blood covenant, they would want to partake of the emblems as Jesus commanded. They would believe him. If they do not partake, then it brings into question whether or not they really believe. Most of the time, belief precedes obedience just as unbelief precedes disobedience.
The part about being born again is strictly an action of God. It follows everything that precedes it: grace>belief>action>born again - in that order.
James is simply a "straight shooter" - Faith without works is dead. Of course, how could it be any other way? In others words, if works do not accompany belief & grace , especially over time, it calls into question the beginning of it all: belief.
Included in that belief, is denial of the old self. A person may believe Jesus intellectually, but they may still want to hang on to their old personhood. They have grown used to it even though it has caused them much pain. It is predictable, and our flesh finds some small comfort in predictableness. If a person is doing this, then they really haven't believed Jesus when he said that it would cost you all you had to follow him. In another place, he said a person would have to be willing to say good bye to his mother and father. In still another place he said that a peson would have to "lose" his life in order to find it. All of these "cost" related items are encapsulated in the term: believing upon Jesus.
I think trust is a better word to capture the biblical concept. Think of jumping out of an airplane with a parachute, and then flapping your arms to try and slow yourself down. Similarly, our works were never designed to get the job done. However, our belief and trust is what unleashes God in our life by means of the blood of Christ, our personal sin payment.
The part that is of most concern to us with a JW background, is that the works that we read about among believers in the NT are not from us. They are God generated by the new spirit acquired at the new birth. Eph 2: 10 - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works