Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:8 ESV
This verse... in and of itself... standing alone... breeds discouragement... for those of us who long to please Him...
What does it mean...?
Well... I can tell you what it does not mean...
Just because you are flesh and blood... a human being... it does not mean... you cannot please God...
First of all... there was Enoch...
Enoch lived after Adam and Eve's sin in the garden... and before the flood...
Enoch pleased God... he walked with God... and because he did... he did not see death...
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death,
and he was not found, because God had taken him.
Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
Hebrews 11:5 ESV
And then of course... there is Jesus... He is flesh and blood... and God said...
"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
Matthew 3:17 ESV
So there is more to this... in the flesh... than simply being human...
Both Enoch... and Jesus... walked with God...
Even though both were in the flesh... they did not live as if they were...
Both these flesh and blood men... lived by faith... and not their carnal natures...
...without faith it is impossible to please [God]...
Hebrews 11:6 ESV
To live in the flesh... is to live by the flesh... apart from God... independent from Him... making your own way... your way...
And that is a place... where you cannot... please... God...
Whether your flesh leads you to outright evil works... or to self-righteous works... neither is pleasing to Him...
For the one who sows to his own flesh
will from the flesh reap corruption,
but the one who sows to the Spirit
will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Galatians 6:8 ESV
Teach me to sow to the Spirit...
and not to my own flesh...
Teach me to live by faith...
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