Rom 8:8

“Rightly therefore does the apostle declare, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" and, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God:" not repudiating [by these words] the substance of flesh, but showing that into it the Spirit must be infused. And for this reason, he says, "This mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on incorruption." And again he declares, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." He sets this forth still more plainly, where he says, "The body indeed is dead, because of sin; but the Spirit is life, because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit dwelling in you." And again he says, in the Epistle to the Romans, "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die." [Now by these words] he does not prohibit them from living their lives in the flesh, for he was himself in the flesh when he wrote to them; but he cuts away the lusts of the flesh, those which bring death upon a man. And for this reason he says in continuation, "But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the works of the flesh, ye shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God."”

“For when he actually declares that "they who are in the flesh cannot please God," he immediately recalls the statement from an heretical sense to a sound one, by adding, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." Now, by denying them to be in the flesh who yet obviously were in the flesh, he showed that they were not living amidst the works of the flesh, and therefore that they who could not please God were not those who were in the flesh, but only those who were living after the flesh; whereas they pleased God, who, although existing in the flesh, were yet walking after the Spirit.”

“Why is this? Is not the speaker himself clad in flesh? Paul does not mean that those clad in flesh are incapable of pleasing God but rather those who put no store by virtue, whose thoughts are totally carnal and who are caught up in pleasures of that kind, paying no attention to their soul, which is incorporeal and intellectual.”

“What then? Are we, it will be said, to cut our bodies in pieces to please God, and to make our escape from the flesh? and would you have us be homicides, and so lead us to virtue? You see what inconsistencies are gendered by taking the words literally. For by "the flesh" in this passage, he does not mean the body, or the essence of the body, but that life which is fleshly and worldly, and uses self-indulgence and extravagance to the full, so making the entire man flesh. For as they that have the wings of the Spirit, make the body also spiritual, so do they who bound off from this, and are the slaves of the belly, and of pleasure, make the soul also flesh, not that they change the essence of it, but that they mar its noble birth. And this mode of speaking is to be met with in many parts of the Old Testament also, to signify by flesh the gross and earthly life, which is entangled in pleasures that are not convenient. For to Noah He says, "My Spirit shall not always make its abode in these men, because they are flesh." (Gen. vi. 3 as the LXX. give it.) And yet Noah was himself also compassed about with flesh. But this is not the complaint, the being compassed about with the flesh, for this is so by nature, but the having chosen a carnal life. Wherefore also Paul saith, "But they that are in the flesh cannot please God."”

“If all who are carnal cannot please God, how does Paul himself, the speaker, please God? How do Peter and the other apostles and saints, whom we cannot deny were carnal, please him?… It is because they—and we—do not live according to the flesh. We … walk about on the earth, it is true, but we are hastening on our way to heaven, for here we do not have a lasting place, but we are wayfarers and pilgrims, like all our fathers.”

“Those who have a carnal mindset cannot please God, so long as they remain such; for by "flesh" he did not mean the essence of the flesh, but a coarse, carnal life that makes the whole person fleshly. So also in the Old Testament it was said: "My Spirit shall not be disregarded by men forever, for they are flesh" (Gen. 6:3).”

“To that which is objected, that those who are in the flesh cannot please God, it must be said that to be in the flesh can denote a relation of matter or of end; insofar as it denotes a relation of matter, it is not reprehensible to be in the flesh, and thus it accords with conjugal chastity and its use; insofar as it denotes a relation of end, as when someone performs carnal works for the sake of the flesh, thus it is culpable: and in this way the Apostle understands it, and in this way it does not arise from conjugal chastity, but rather is against it. Whence Augustine, in the book On the Good of Marriage: "Marriages have this good, that carnal or youthful incontinence, even if it is vicious, is directed to the honorableness of propagating offspring, so that from the evil of lust the conjugal union may produce something good; then, because carnal concupiscence is restrained and in a certain way burns more modestly, being tempered by parental affection. For a certain gravity intervenes in fervent pleasure, when in the very act by which man and woman cleave to one another, they nevertheless consider becoming father and mother." From which it is gathered that marriage is of such great power that it directs the carnal act to spiritual honorableness.”

“Then when he says, "and they who are in the flesh," he applies what he had said about prudence of the flesh to men whom the prudence of the flesh rules, saying: "they who are in the flesh," i.e., who follow the desires of the flesh by the prudence of the flesh, so long as they are this way "cannot please God," because: "the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him" (Ps 147:11). Hence those who do not submit to him cannot please him, so long as they remain such. But they can cease to be in the flesh according to the manner described and then they will be pleasing to God.”