Genuine works point to God, not to self.

“The temptation of the believer is to look at the works which he does in faith and suddenly to reinstitute works and merit as a new form of slavery in the very citadel of the freedom of the Gospel… The ethical rigor of the New Testament teachings and of the law should convince the Christian the he, too, is still sinner. Moreover, the very looking at one’s works spoils them. Genuine works point to God, not to self.” John Dillenberger