Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 8:8
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
8. So then ] Lit. But; and perhaps better thus. The opposition is to the idea implied by the previous clauses of a condition which can love and submit.
in the flesh ] Of course in the moral sense of “the flesh,” and as being not merely beset by it, but characterized and determined by it. Practically the phrase = “ after the flesh” (Rom 8:4). The difference in idea is that between a condition and the resulting action. It is clear that “they that are in the flesh” means “all men before special grace.” For the only other condition of the soul contemplated by St Paul is the being “in the Spirit,” i.e. actuated and ruled by “the Holy Ghost given unto us.”
cannot please God ] See Col 1:10 for the bright contrast of the state of grace. This ver. proves that “the mind of the flesh” is viewed by St Paul as the true, ruling, determining, “mind” of the unregenerate man. It is not only a dangerous element, but that which gives its quality to his whole attitude towards God. He “cannot” (a moral impossibility of course is meant) “please God;” he cannot make God his supreme choice, object, and rule; in short he cannot “love Him with all his mind;” and no other condition of the soul than this can, in the true sense of the word, “ please God.” Particular acts, in themselves, He may approve; but not the real attitude of the doer’s soul.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
So then – It follows; it leads to this conclusion.
They that are in the flesh – They who are unrenewed sinners; who are following supremely the desires of the flesh; Rom 7:18. Those are meant here who follow fleshly appetites and desires, and who are not led by the Spirit of God.
Cannot please God – That is, while they are thus in the flesh; while they thus pursue the desires of their corrupt nature, they cannot please God. But this affirms nothing respecting their ability to turn from this course, and to pursue a different mode of life. That is a different question. A child may be obstinate, proud, and disobedient; and while in this state, it may be affirmed of him that he cannot please his parent. But whether he might not cease to be obstinate, and become obedient, is a very different inquiry; and the two subjects should never be be confounded. It follows from this,
- That those who are unrenewed are totally depraved, since in this state they cannot please God.
(2)That none of their actions while in this state can be acceptable to him, since he is pleased only with those who are spiritually minded.
(3)That those who are in this state should turn from it without delay; as it is desirable that every man should please God.
(4)That if the sinner does not turn from his course, he will be ruined.
With his present character he can never please him; neither in health nor sickness; neither in life nor death; neither on earth nor in hell. He is engaged in hostility against God; and if he does not himself forsake it, it will be endless, and involve his soul in all the evils of a personal, and direct, and eternal warfare with the Lord Almighty.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 8:8
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Pleasing God
Mens happiness is to please them upon whom they depend, and upon whose favour their wellbeing hangs. It is the servants happiness to please his master, the courtiers to please his prince. Now certainly all creatures depend upon the Creator, for in Him we live, and move, and have our being. Then of all things it concerns us most how to please Him, and if we do so we shall assuredly be happy, and it will not matter whom else we displease (Psa 31:19; Psa 36:7). But, on the other hand, how incomparable is the misery of them who cannot please God, even though they did both please themselves and all others for the present! Now, if you ask who they are that are such, the words speak it: They that are in the flesh, not they in whom there is flesh, for there are remnants of that in the most spiritual man in this life. The ground of this is chiefly two fold.
I. Because they are not in Jesus Christ in whom his soul is well pleased (Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5). Whoever are not in Jesus Christ certainly cannot please God, do what they can, because God hath made Christ the centre, in which He would have the good pleasure of sinners meeting with His good pleasure; and therefore without faith it is impossible to please God, not so much for the excellency of the act itself as for the well-pleasing object of it, Christ. Gods love is well pleased with the excellency of His person, and His justice with the sufficiency and worthiness of His ransom, and without this compass there is neither satisfaction to the one nor to the other. Therefore, if you would please God, be pleased with Christ, and you cannot do Him a greater pleasure than believe in Him (Joh 5:23).
II. Such as are in the flesh cannot frame their spirits, affections, and ways to Gods good pleasure, for their very mind is enmity to God, and cannot be subject to His law (Jer 2:34).
1. It is not the business you have undertaken to please God, but to please yourselves, or to please men. The very beginning of pleasing God is when a soul falls in displeasure at itself and abhorrence of himself (Isa 66:2; Psa 51:17). God never begins to be pleasant to a soul till it begins to fall out of love with itself. Therefore you may conclude this of yourselves, that with many of you God is not well pleased, though you have all Church privileges (1Co 10:2-5), not only because these works of the flesh that are directly opposite to His own known will, such as fornication, murmuring, etc., abound among you, but even those of you that may be free from gross opposition to His holy will, your nature hath the seed of all that enmity, and you act enmity in a more covered way. Certainly, though now you please yourselves, yet the clay shall come that you shall be contrary to yourselves, and all to you (1Th 2:15), and there are some earnests of it in this life. Many wicked persons are set contrary to themselves, and all to them; they are like Esau, their hand against all, and all hands against them; yea, their own consciences continually vexing them; this is a fruit of that enmity between man and God, and if you find it now, you shall find it hereafter.
2. But as for you that are in Jesus Christ, who, being displeased with yourselves, have fled into the well-beloved, in whom the Father is well pleased, to escape Gods displeasure, I say unto such, your persons God is well pleased with in Christ, and this shall make way and place for acceptance to your weak and imperfect performances. But I would charge that upon you, that as you by believing are well pleased with Christ, so you would henceforth study to walk worthy of your Lord into all well pleasing (Col 1:10). If you love Him, you cannot but fashion yourselves so as He may be pleased. (Hugh Binning.)
Pleasing God
I. The impossibility of a carnal mind pleasing God. This springs from the necessity of the case.
1. As dwelling in a nature, every faculty of which is in hostility to His government and being, it is impossible that it can please Him.
2. There being no personal acceptance of those who are in the flesh, whatever they do cannot be accepted of God. First the person, and then the gift, is Gods order (cf. Queen Esthers interview with Ahasuerus and Jacobs meeting with Esau)
. How can you do that which is well pleasing to a holy God while your person is to Him an object of just abhorrence?
3. The absence of faith in the unregenerate must render all the religious doings of the sinner displeasing. For without faith it is impossible to please Him. How can he please God whose whole existence is a direct denial of God? He that believeth not hath made God a liar! Your unbelief is a practical denial of His existence. And, in your non-subjection to His law, you exclude Him from the government of His own world.
4. And what is the entire absence of love to God but another confirmation of the same truth? the great constraining motive of the sacrifice with which God is pleased is love, and love is the fulfilling of the law.
II. The character of those with whom God is pleased. They are–
1. A spiritual people, and God, who is a Spirit, must delight in that which harmonises with His own nature.
2. They are an accepted people, and therefore their persons are pleasing to Him. The delight of the Father in Christ reveals the secret of His delight in us. This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
3. But it is a universal pleasing of God which the Scriptures prescribe and enforce (Col 1:10; 1Th 2:2; 1Jn 3:22).
4. But what are some of the footprints of this walk?
(1) Unreserved obedience.
(2) Walking by faith. As unbelief is most dishonouring, so faith is most honouring to the Lord Jesus. (O. Winslow, D. D.)
They that are in the flesh cannot please God
The designation of the persons that is in these words–They that are in the flesh. The discovery of their condition in these cannot please God. We begin with the first. The designation of the persons, those that are in the flesh. Now to be in the flesh, according to the language of Scripture, is taken two manner of ways, either in a good or in an indifferent sense, or a bad and unwarrantable sense. First, to be so in a good or in an indifferent sense, and so to be in the flesh is no more than to partake of human nature. Thus, The life which I now live in the flesh (Gal 2:20). But, secondly, there is also being in the flesh in a bad and corrupt sense, by taking flesh metonymically for sin, as it is oftentimes taken in Scripture. The second is the predicate, in the discovery of the condition belonging to such persons, and that is, that they cannot please God, viz., whilst they so remain and continue. This may be taken by us two ways, either as denoting the state or the life, the condition or the conversation. First, take it in the first sense, They that are in the flesh cannot please God–that is, such persons as are yet remaining in a state of nature and unregeneracy; these are loathsome and displeasing to God. Now it remains that we should show what is here declared of such persons, that they cannot please God. First, take it for their persons. They are unpleasing to Him in reference to them (Psa 54:5; Psa 7:11; Hab 1:13). There is no leprous or contagious person that is more displeasing in the eyes of man than a carnal and unregenerate person is displeasing to the eyes of God. The ground of this unpleasingness may be thus far accounted to us: first, because they are out of Christ, who is the primarily Beloved (Eph 1:6; Mat 3:17). In Him as the termination of His well pleasing, and in Him also as the conveyance; in Him for Himself, and in all others for His sake. All men are so far well pleasing to God as they are in Christ. Now carnal persons are not incorporated into Christ, therefore they cannot be well pleasing to God in such a condition. They are in themselves and in their own nature unlovely. Secondly, unregenerate persons cannot please God, because they want faith. Thirdly, they are altogether unlike God, and so cannot be pleasing to Him in that respect likewise. We know that liking is founded in likeness, and complacency in correspondency. Fourthly, we need go no further for the proof of this point than the text itself, if we look upon it in the coherence of it, and how these carnal persons are therein described as are after the flesh, as do mind the things of the flesh, are in a state of death, in a state of enmity, in a state of impotency, and inability of subjection to the law of God. How is it then possible that such as these should be pleasing to God? The second is in reference to their actions. They cannot please Him so neither. The actions of carnal men are unpleasing to God considered in themselves, because they proceed not from a right principle in them, nor are directed to a right end by them. Sweetness of nature, and ingenuity, and moral accomplishments are very commendable in themselves, and do make men acceptable in their converse one with another, but yet they are not sufficient alone to make men acceptable in the eyes of God. Men are sensible sometimes of their actual sins, and have cause so to be–of their murders, and adulteries, and drunkenness, and thefts, and such courses as these, which now and then do a little astonish them and work some kind of horror in them. But what may they then think of the sin of their nature, which is the occasion of all these to them? For a man to be of a sickly constitution is more than to have a particular distemper or fit of sickness upon him. For this purpose, and to aggravate this so much the more unto us, consider these things further. First, that this corrupt nature, where it remains unchanged in any person, it does expose him to all kind of sin, considered at large, of what nature or kind soever. There is no sin which a man is secure of who is still remaining in his unregenerate condition, but he is not only capable of it, but inclinable to it. Secondly, where men are yet in the flesh and unchanged in their nature, they are exposed to the return of sin again, after some temporary forbearance of it and abstinence from it. There is nothing which is a principle of mortification but only sanctifying and saving grace. Thirdly, this state of nature does make men to commit sin with more delight and eagerness of prosecution. Those that are in their natural condition, they are in a sad and miserable condition. And they are so especially upon this account which is here expressed in the text, because they cannot please God, which carries a great deal more in it than we are presently sensible of, or do easily apprehend. They do not or cannot please God; their case is very terrible and dangerous. Thus it is, and will appear to be so according to sundry explications. First, as it is an obstruction to prayer and the receiving of that. We know that God hears not sinners, said the blind man in the gospel (Joh 9:31), and he that regards iniquity in his heart, the Lord will not hear his prayer (Psa 66:18). Secondly, it deprives men of blessings and the comfortable influences of Gods providence. God will curse his very blessings and turn his comforts into the greatest crosses unto him; as we see it was with the Israelites, when God was offended and displeased with them: He gave them quails and manna in wrath. Thirdly, it exposes to temptations and the assaults of the spiritual enemy. Whoso pleaseth God shall be kept from many snares, But he that does not so, he shall be given up to them. Lastly, it excludes from heaven and eternal happiness and salvation at last. (Thomas Horton, D. D.)
Men in the flesh cannot please God
The phrase notes a man drowned in corruption. We say of a man overcome of anger: he is in heat; of a drunkard: he is in beer or wine. So Simon Magus is said to be in the gall of bitterness. They cannot please God. Nor their persons, nor their thoughts, words, or actions, till they be renewed. Snow can never be made hot while it is snow. Fire will dissolve it into water; then it may be made hot. So the carnal man in that estate cannot please God, but change him into a sanctified estate, and then he can. A man may be prudent, learned, liberal, do many beautiful things in nature, and yet not please God. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. Velvet is good matter to make a garment, yet it may be so marred in the cutting that it shall never obtain the name of a good garment. Pieces of timber are good matter for a house, but they must be artificially framed. An unregenerate man gives alms, and in giving sins: not because he gives, but because he gives not in the manner he should. (Elnathan Parr, B. A.)
Men in their natural state cannot please God
To please God is of infinite importance. Since He is omniscient and omnipresent, we cannot escape His observation: since He is Almighty, He has our life, and all things belonging to us, continually at His disposal, can make us happy or miserable in a thousand different ways. He is, therefore, the most dreadful enemy or the most beneficial friend we can have. Of what infinite consequence, then, to be in His favour.
I. What is meant by being in the flesh. This expression is often used to signify being in the body (Php 1:22; Php 1:24; 1Ti 3:16; 1Pe 4:1-2; 1Pe 4:6; 1Jn 4:2-3); but this is not its meaning here, for many in the body have pleased God. Nor is the living merely in sensuality and the sins of the flesh referred to (Gal 5:16-21), though undoubtedly such cannot please God. But what is intended is the being in our natural state (Gen 6:3 compared with 8:21; Eph 2:3). This implies–
1. The being unpardoned, or in a state of condemnation in consequence of not being in Christ (Rom 7:4-6; Rom 8:1).
2. Unregenerated (Joh 3:6).
3. Under the power of our animal and corrupt nature, the law in our members leading us captive to sir?
4. Carnally minded; minding the body rather than the soul; visible and temporal things rather than invisible and eternal; preferring nature to grace, and the creature to the Creator; being governed by carnal maxims; actuated by carnal views; influenced by carnal desires; engaged in carnal pursuits.
II. In what sense such cannot please God, and how this appears to be a fact.
1. While thus in the flesh, such persons are not in Gods favour.
(1) They are not humbled and penitent, without which none can be accepted (Isa 57:15; Isa 66:2; 1Pe 5:5-6; Jam 4:10).
(2) They are not believers; and without faith there is no justification, nor can we please God (Heb 11:4-6; Joh 3:36; Rom 4:23-25; Rom 5:1; 2Co 13:5).
(3) Their carnal mind is not subject to His law. Nay, is enmity against Him. That we should be spiritually minded is for our good; but the carnal mind opposes this good, and to be carnally minded is death.
2. Hence it follows that their services are not accepted of God, and that their ways do not please Him. Not being justified, they have not love to God (Rom 5:5), and without love no service is, or can be, pleasing to God.
3. But perhaps it will be objected–
(1) Cannot they pray, hear the Word? etc. Yes; but not worship God in spirit and truth, which, while destitute of the Spirit, they cannot do, and not doing, they are incapable of pleasing Him: they do not mix faith with the word that is heard, receive the truth in love, and obey it from the heart.
(2) But cannot they preserve an unblamable conduct, give alms, etc.? Certainly; but this does not please God, as not being done from a right principle, faith working by love: to a right end, the glory of God; in a right spirit, humility, purity, benevolence, zeal, etc.; and by a right rule, the will of God, and out of conscience toward Him (Gal 5:6; 1Co 10:31; Col 3:17).
III. The sure mark whereby we may know whether we are in this state (Rom 8:9).
1. By receiving the Spirit we pass from a carnal to a spiritual state (Joh 3:6).
2. By the Spirit dwelling in us we continue in that state (text; Gal 5:16-25). Hereby we know that we are in the Spirit (1Jn 3:24).
3. But we must receive and keep this Spirit as a Spirit of–
(1) Adoption (Rom 8:15-16; Gal 4:4);
(2) Regeneration (Tit 3:5; Joh 3:4-5); productive of its proper fruits. (J. Benson.)
Mans well-being: its condition and obstruction
I. The condition of mans well-being. To please God, which implies–
1. That God is a pleasable Being. The Eternal is neither callous nor morose.
2. It is possible for man to please Him. It is wonderful that any creature, however high, should be able to please a Being so infinitely happy in Himself; but it is more wonderful that insignificant, fallen man should have this power.
3. How can man please God? Not by singing eulogistic hymns, or offering complimentary prayers, or observing ceremonial ordinances. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? How then?
(1) By loving supremely what He loves most. We are pleased with those who love the objects most dear to our hearts.
(2) By devotion to those objects which interest Him most.
4. In the pleasing of Him is mans well-being.
(1) Is mans happiness in a peaceful conscience? Then the conscience must have a sense of Gods approval. The fear of His displeasure terrifies it, the assurance of His approval is its heaven.
(2) Is mans happiness in gratified love? The loving heart is in anguish until it hears the well done of the loved one.
(3) Is mans happiness in full development of his active powers? Then where can these powers have such stimulus and scope as it endeavours to please the Infinite?
II. The obstruction to mans well-being. Being in the flesh. What is meant by this? Not merely existing in the flesh: thus we all exist; but having the flesh for our master instead of our menial. The man who thus dwells in the flesh gets–
1. Fleshly views of the universe. All above, around, beneath him is materialism. His eyes are too gross to discern the spiritual significance of things; his ear too heavy to catch the spiritual melodies of the world.
2. Truth. He judges after the flesh. If he has a theology, it is a sensuous thing.
3. Greatness. He has no idea of greatness apart from splendid costumes, magnificent dwellings, and brilliant equipages.
4. Happiness. He associates happiness with whatever pleases the tastes, charms the senses, satisfies the appetites, and gratifies the lusts.
5. God. He makes God such an one as himself, and gives Him human thoughts and passions. Now the soul in such a state has lost the desire and the power to please God. But the gospel comes to enfranchise the soul from the flesh and to restore to it its absolute sovereignty over the body. This deliverance is a new birth. He that is born of the flesh is flesh, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. So then] Because this carnal mind is enmity against God, they that are in the flesh-who are under the power of the workings of this carnal mind, (which every soul is that has not received redemption in the blood of the Lamb,)-
Cannot please God.] Because of the rebellious workings of this principle of rebellion and hatred. And, if they cannot please God, they must be displeasing to him; and consequently in the broad road to final perdition.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
So then; this verse is a consectary, or it follows from that which went before.
They that are in the flesh; not they which are married, as a pope once expounded it; the next verse refels such an absurd conception; but they that are carnal and unregenerate; the same with those who, in Rom 8:5, are said to be after the flesh.
Cannot please God; neither they, nor any thing they do, is pleasing unto him; their best works are dead works, and silken sins (as one expresseth it): it must be understood with this limitation, so long as they continue in such a state: see Psa 5:4,5; Heb 11:6.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. So thennearly equivalentto “And so.”
they that are inand,therefore, under the government of
the flesh cannot pleaseGodhaving no obediential principle, no desire to please Him.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So then they that are in the flesh,…. They that are in the flesh are the same who are said to be after it, Ro 8:5, and are there described. Such
cannot please God; men, whilst unregenerate, and as such, cannot please God; for though the persons of God’s elect are wellpleasing to him always, as considered in Christ, in whom they are loved with an everlasting love, and were chosen in him, and all provisions grace and glory made for them in him; yet as considered in themselves, and whilst in the flesh, do not please him; for they are straying from him, are alienated from his life, are destitute of all grace, and particularly faith, without which it is impossible to please him; are filthy and unclean, and hence, whilst such have no enjoyment of him, or communion with him; wherefore he sends his Spirit to work in them that which is wellpleasing in his sight: but this is not to be understood so much of persons, and their non-acceptableness to God, as of the inability of unregenerate men to obtain the good will of God, or make their peace with him; which they have no inclination to, being enmity against him; and were they inclined to it, know not how to go about it; nor can they draw nigh to God to treat with him about terms of peace; nor can they do that which can procure peace; Christ is the only person that can, make peace, and has done it: or rather, of the impotency of natural men to do anything which pleasing in the sight of God. There are many things which are pleasing to him, such as prayer, praise, giving of alms, keeping his commandments, and walking in his ways; but these unregenerate men cannot do in any acceptable manner to God; for they are without the Spirit, without Christ, without faith; and in all they do have no view to the glory of God: they have neither grace, nor strength, nor right principles, nor right ends.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Cannot please God ( ). Because of the handicap of the lower self in bondage to sin. This does not mean that the sinner has no responsibility and cannot be saved. He is responsible and can be saved by the change of heart through the Holy Spirit.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “So then they that are in the flesh,” (hoi de en sarkiontes) “Those existing in the flesh,” in the flesh nature, those unsaved, unrenewed, in the unregenerate state of natural birth as accountable persons, Jew or Gentile are “by nature children of wrath,” and “children of the devil,” Eph 2:1-2; Joh 8:44.
2) “Cannot please God,” (theo aersai ou dunatai) “are not able to please God,” cannot walk with God, or exist in harmony with God. This is why men cannot enter heaven unless they are born again, regenerated, or made partakers of His divine nature, Heb 12:14; Rev 21:27. The unsaved are quarantined from entering heaven because of their depraved sinful state, until after, or unless they are born again. Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5; Luk 13:3; Luk 13:5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. They then who are in the flesh, etc. It is not without reason that I have rendered the adversative δὲ as an illative: for the Apostle infers from what had been said, that those who give themselves up to be guided by the lusts of the flesh, are all of them abominable before God; and he has thus far confirmed this truth, — that all who walk not after the Spirit are alienated from Christ, for they are without any spiritual life.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) So then . . .Rather, and. Neither can it be expected that those who are absorbed in the things of sense should be able to please God.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Cannot please God From this a strange theology has inferred that even an unregenerate man’s complete resignation of sin and unregeneracy, and his effort and act of entire submission to God, though required by God, and encouraged by his promise and pardon, cannot be pleasing to God nor accepted by him! This theology declares that men must be regenerate before they can make the self-surrendering act of faith to God! But in truth that act of faith is the precedent condition in order to regeneration. It is after an unregenerate man by God’s help and grace performs the act of faith that regeneration is bestowed. When it is said that an unregenerate man cannot please God, it means an unregenerate man acting after the flesh, that is, in accordance with the unregenerate nature within him. So a disobedient child cannot be pleasing to his parents, nor a dishonest citizen acceptable to the government, that is, as a disobedient child and as a dishonest citizen. But that means not that the disobedient child, as a free agent, cannot renounce his disobedience, and the dishonest resign his dishonesty, and so both become right and acceptable.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Rom 8:8. So then they that are in the flesh, &c. This is the conclusion drawn from what went before; and in the flesh here, must mean the same as to be carnally-minded, &c. above;to be under the government of sensual appetites. See Gal 4:3-6.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 8:8 . ] is not put for (Beza, Calvin, Koppe, and others; comp. also Rckert and Reiche), but is the simple ( autem ), which, after the auxiliary clauses . , leads over to a relation corresponding to the main proposition . . . , and referring to the persons in the concrete. The propriety of this connection will at once be manifest if . be read more rapidly (like a parenthesis). According to Hofmann, the progress of thought is now supposed to advance from the condemnation of sin to the freedom from death . But such a scheme corresponds neither with the preceding, in which sin and death were grouped together (Rom 8:2 ; Rom 8:6 ), nor with what follows, where in the first instance there is no mention of death, and it is only in Rom 8:10 f. that the special point is advanced of the raising from the dead.
] is in substance the same as in Rom 8:5 ; but the form of the conception is: those who are in the flesh as the ethical life-element, in which they subsist, and which is the opposite of the in Rom 8:9 , and in Rom 8:1 . Comp. on Rom 7:5 . The one excludes the other, and the former, as antagonistic to God, makes the (comp. 1Th 2:15 ; 1Th 4:1 ) an impossibility.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Ver. 8. Cannot please God ] Their best works are but dead works, saith the author to the Hebrews; but silken sins, saith Augustine. Lombard citeth that Father, saying thus, Omnis vita infidelium peccatum est: et nihil bonum sine summe bone. The whole life of unbelievers is sin: neither is there anything good without the chiefest good. Ambrose Spiera, a Popish postiller, censureth this for a bloody sentence, Crudelis est illa sententia, Harsh is that opinion, saith he.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8. ] but (takes up the other and inferential member of the proposition, answering to a suppressed preceding, . . . [bringing in a further consequence: if the mind of the flesh cannot be subject to God’s law, then they who are in the flesh, and are led by that mind, cannot please God]. Calv., Beza, al. render it ‘ therefore ,’ and so E. V., ‘ so then ,’ erroneously) they who are in the flesh (as their element of life and thought : nearly above, which however denotes the rule which they follow. In 2Co 10:3 , the two are distinguished: ) cannot please God .
Melancthon remarks (Thol.), ‘Hic locus maxime refutat Pelagianos et omnes qui imaginantur homines sine Spiritu Sancto legi obedire.’
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
So, &c. Compare Rom 7:15-17. Gal 1:5, Gal 1:17.
cannot = are not (Rom 8:7) able to.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8.] but (takes up the other and inferential member of the proposition, answering to a suppressed preceding,- … [bringing in a further consequence: if the mind of the flesh cannot be subject to Gods law, then they who are in the flesh, and are led by that mind, cannot please God]. Calv., Beza, al. render it therefore, and so E. V., so then, erroneously) they who are in the flesh (as their element of life and thought: nearly- above, which however denotes the rule which they follow. In 2Co 10:3, the two are distinguished: ) cannot please God.
Melancthon remarks (Thol.),-Hic locus maxime refutat Pelagianos et omnes qui imaginantur homines sine Spiritu Sancto legi obedire.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 8:8. ) is , [employed to give epitasis (endix): i.e. where to an enunciation already stated, there is added some word to give increased emphasis, or an explanation].-) here, as elsewhere, signifies not only I please, but I am desirous to please, 1Co 10:33; Gal 1:10; it is akin to the phrase, to be subject, in the preceding verse.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 8:8
Rom 8:8
and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.-The reason why they cannot please God is because they are constantly sinning against him. The flesh must be brought into subjection to the Spirit before they can be brought into harmony with God. The human spirit cannot gain the mastery over the flesh until it is strengthened by the Spirit of God in Christ Jesus.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
they that: Rom 8:9, Rom 7:5, Joh 3:3, Joh 3:5, Joh 3:6
please: Mat 3:17, Joh 8:29, 1Co 7:32, Phi 4:18, Col 1:10, Col 3:20, 1Th 4:1, Heb 11:5, Heb 11:6, Heb 13:16, Heb 13:21, 1Jo 3:22
Reciprocal: Gen 8:21 – the imagination Deu 1:43 – but rebelled Job 14:4 – Who can bring Job 15:13 – turnest Isa 53:10 – when thou shalt make his soul Mat 15:19 – out Mar 7:21 – out Joh 5:44 – can Joh 6:44 – man Joh 8:23 – Ye are from Joh 8:43 – ye cannot Joh 15:24 – hated Rom 1:28 – as they did Rom 1:30 – haters Eph 2:3 – fulfilling Eph 4:18 – alienated Col 1:21 – sometime 2Th 2:12 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
ON PLEASING GOD
They that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:8
In the second collect for Evening Prayer we ask that our hearts may be set to obey Gods commandments. It is a thoroughly scriptural petition. To please God we must obey Him.
I. This obedience must be rooted in reverence.The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There is very little godly fear in this flippant and shallow age.
II. This obedience must be inspired by love.It must be doing the will of God from the heart. The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. And love is the only ingredient that weighs in the scales of heaven.
III. This obedience must be sustained by prayer.It should be steadfast and unceasing. Not by fits and starts, but with hearts set to obey.
Rev. F. S. Webster.
Illustration
Some think that the tendencies to evil can be eliminated without dealing with the question of guilt and punishment, or propitiation and pardon. But it is not so. Love is the only expulsive power that can eliminate sin. And love cannot dwell in an unforgiven soul. He that is forgiven much, will love much. He that despises the need of forgiveness, despises the Love that has been sinned against, and so closes his heart against that Love. And the forgiveness must be both just and free. It must be based on righteous grounds, or it will not restore a good conscience in the forgiven soul; it must be without money and without price, or it will not be great. They that are in the flesh cannot please God, for true obedience must be inspired by love.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Rom 8:8. And. Not, so then, but a simple continuation of the thought of Rom 8:7.
They that are in the flesh. Substantially the same as: they that are according to the flesh (Rom 8:5), but stronger, and presenting a better contrast to the full gospel phrases: in Christ in the Spirit
Cannot please God, because of the character of the mind of the flesh. By this negative expression, it is said, in a mild way, that they are objects of Divine displeasure, children of wrath (Lange).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
To be in the flesh, is not barely to have the flesh in us, but prevailing in us: to be wholly possessed by the flesh, to be drenched and drowned in sin; instead of fighting under Christ’s banner against sin, to fight under the banner of corrupt nature against Christ. Such cannot please God; nay, they cannot but displease him, both in their persons and in their actions; for none can please him that are unsuitable and unlike unto him, because all liking is founded in likeness, and all complacency is correspondency.
Learn hence, That carnal men neither do, nor can please God, because not renewed by God, nor reconciled to him: Such as are in the flesh cannot please God.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Rom 8:8. So then, &c. The inference to be drawn from the principles just laid down, is, they that are in the flesh In the sense explained in the preceding verses, and especially Rom 7:5, where see the notes; they who are under the government of the flesh, of their animal appetites and passions, or of their corrupt nature; they who are carnally minded; cannot please God Namely, while they continue so, or, till they be justified and regenerated. He means, they are not in a state of acceptance with God; nor do their ways, their tempers, words, and works, please him, whatever ceremonial precepts they may observe. An important and alarming declaration this, which it concerns all the professors of Christianity maturely to consider and lay to heart; and particularly those who content themselves with a form of godliness, without the power; with an attendance on outward ordinances, and the use of the external means of grace, and give themselves no concern either about the remission of their past sins, or the renovation of their sinful nature; but remain earthly and sensual in their desires, cares, and pursuits, or carnally minded, which is death.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 8. On the other hand, God is no more the friend of the flesh than the flesh is of Him. The has been understood in all sorts of ways, from Meyer, who understands it in the sense of now then, to Calvin and Flatt, who give it the sense of therefore (ergo)! It is a simple adversative: and on the other hand. The enmity is as it were natural. For the abstract principle, the flesh, Paul here substitutes the carnal individuals; he thus approaches the direct application to his readers which follows in Rom 8:9.
To be in the flesh is a still stronger expression than to be after the flesh, Rom 8:5. According to this latter, the flesh is the standard of moral existence; according to the former, it is its principle or source. Now, how could God take pleasure in beings who have as the principle of their life the pursuit of self? Is this not the principle opposed to His essence?
Thus, then, carnal beings, already involved in spiritual death, plunge themselves in it ever deeper and deeper; and consequently for them condemnation remains, and is all that remains; while spiritual men rise on the ladder of life to that perfect existence wherein the last trace of condemnation, physical death itself, will disappear (Rom 8:9-11).
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
8. For those who are in carnality are not able to please God. The word flesh (E. V.) here does not mean the body, but the carnal mind. Enoch pleased God while in the body, and He took him to heaven. The next verse shows that it does not mean the body, but carnality. There is but one way out, and that is to have carnality destroyed, which is the work of entire sanctification. If we do not please God, it is certain we will never get to heaven. If we please Him we must obey Him. He commands us to be holy, and that means to get rid of depravity. For this he has made ample provision. Hence we must obey and be holy, or disobey, remain carnal and displease God, thus backsliding and making our bed in hell. If you walk in all the light He gives you, his blood will cleanse you from all sin. If you do not walk in the light, you will displease Him, and lose your soul in the end.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
8:8 {10} So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
(10) The conclusion. Therefore they that walk after the flesh cannot please God: by which it follows that they are not grafted into Christ.