I still share this experience, that works always try to draw me away from Christ and to myself. I must still fight against this night and day. And our adversaries incessantly din into our ears: “You must do good works!” We agree and reply that this is true, that this is God’s will. But it is also the will of God that we eat the flesh of Christ, that is, believe and then do good works. I am obliged to perform good works; but they do not deliver me from sin, and they cannot give me eternal life, and they do not nourish me for eternal life. This honor I will not concede them, but I will give them their proper due and say that they are done to the glory and honor of God and to the benefit and welfare of our neighbor.
Luther’s Works, vol. 23, 172