Abraham wasn't justified by his works, until he was justified by works.

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Rom 4:1
What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
This is the mainstay verse of Scripture, that OSAS Christians run to for faith alone justification. But as with all false doctrine, it's only run by false reading of Scripture taken out of context. In this case, it dismisses context both locally in Romans 4, and generally with James 2.

First the general context:

James{2:21}
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only…
Without breaking Scripture, we know that Abraham was justified by works. Since it's not a matter of if Abraham was justified by works, then it was only a matter of when.

When was Abraham not justified by works in Rom 4? When Abraham believed God for a promised son, Isaac.

Gen 15:4
And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir...And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

When was Abraham justified by works in James 2, only when Abraham offered up his promised son Isaac.

And so, we see that in Rom 4 Abraham was not justified by his works at that time, but in James 2 was justified by works at that time.

Now the local context:

Rom 4:1
What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

The works of Abraham that did not justify him, was works pertaining to the flesh, not pertaining to any works at all. In James 2, we see only the works of faith after the Spirit are justified by God:

Heb 11:17
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

Gal 4:28
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

Conclusion: By dismissing general and local context of Scripture, false doctrine is by corrupting the rule of exclusionary context: Partial exclusion is wrongly inflated to complete exclusion.

In Rom 4, the exclusion of some works in Abraham's life at that time, is falsely used to excluded all works in his life at that later time in James 2.

 

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The same exclusionary error is made in Rom 4 pertaining to imputed righteousness without works.

Rom 4:5
But to him that worketh not, and believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man,
unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

The works here excluded from imputed righteousness, are only those sinful works done before faith in Jesus Christ. The Scripture speaks only of past works of iniquities forgiven, not of new works done by faith, that need no forgiveness.

And so, the exclusion of works without Christ, are perverted into the exclusion of all works, even those works of christ by faith.

Works of faith and righteousness in Jesus Christ cannot be excluded from being righteous by faith:

1 John{3:7}
Little children, let no man deceive you: he that is doing righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

Else being righteous as the Lord by works, is excluded from being righteous through faith in the Lord.

And so, even as Abraham's later works of faith could not be boasted of after the flesh, so also works of faith in Jesus Christ cannot be boasted of, and excluded from justification of God:

Gal 6:14
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Gal 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

 

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So, what were the works that Abraham did, when he believed God for a promised son by Sarah? He laid with Sarah and conceived the son in old age, of course:

Rom 4:1
What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
Rom 4:19
And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:

This work pertaining to the flesh did not justify Abraham with God, else he truly would have something to brag about, especially in old age.

But not the work of offering up his promised son to God, for which no righteous man would boast in killing his own innocent son.

In Rom 4, Abraham did what was only necessary after the flesh to conceive the promised son. But in James 2, Abraham did so only by faith in God's word, that by the flesh would destroy the promised seed.

The former works could be boasted of in the body of Abraham, not at all the later works with the body of Isaac. This work was justified by faith in the Spirit, not by faith in the flesh:

Heb 11:17
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.