Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

"Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." — Romans 8:8

This single verse distills one of the most critical themes in Paul’s letter to the Romans: the total moral inability of fallen man apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. It serves as the culmination of Paul’s argument from Romans 1–8 that all men, both Jew and Gentile, are under sin and subject to God’s judgment unless they are made alive by the Spirit.

Characteristics of Those "In the Flesh" (Romans 1–8)

The phrase "in the flesh" refers not to the physical body, but to man in his natural state—fallen, unregenerate, and in Adam. In Romans 1-8, Paul portrays this condition with devastating clarity:

-- Suppress the Truth – “By their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18)

-- Given Over by God – “God gave them up to dishonorable passions” (Romans 1:26; cf. vv. 24, 28)

-- Hostile to God – “The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God” (Romans 8:7)

-- Cannot Submit to God's Law – “ …it does not submit to God's law;

indeed, it cannot” (Romans 8:7)

-- Cannot Please God – “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8)

-- Under Sin – “Both Jews and Greeks are under sin” (Romans 3:9)

-- None Righteous – “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10)

-- No Understanding – “No one understands” (Romans 3:11)

-- No One Seeks for God – “…no one seeks for God” (Romans 3:11)

-- Turned Aside, Become Worthless – “All have turned aside… no one does good,

not even one” (Romans 3:12)

-- In Adam, Made Sinners – “By the one man’s disobedience the many were

made sinners” (Romans 5:19)-- Slaves to Sin – “You were slaves of sin…” (Romans 6:17, 20)

-- Fruit for Death – “The end of those things is death” (Romans 6:21)

-- Carnally Minded Leads to Death – “To set the mind on the flesh is death” (Romans 8:6)

These are not merely behavioral tendencies—they are ontological realities. Paul is describing what man is by nature: dead in sin, enslaved, spiritually blind, hostile to God, and morally incapable of pleasing or seeking Him. It is not just that he does not submit to God’s law—he cannot. Not merely that he does not please God—he will not for he loves darkness and hates the light.

This underscores the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit’s work in salvation. Only by the Spirit can a person be set free from the flesh, united to Christ, and made truly alive. As Paul writes, “The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). It is the Spirit who gives life (8:10), who indwells and transforms the believer (8:9), and who leads the children of God in holiness (8:14).

Without the Spirit, no one belongs to Christ (8:9); there is no resurrection hope (8:11), no assurance of adoption (8:16), no power to please God (8:8), and no desire to seek Him (3:11). The flesh can produce nothing but death—but “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (8:13). Thus, what fallen man cannot do in the flesh, God does by His Spirit, raising the dead to newness of life in Christ.

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If what Paul says in Romans is true—that “those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8), that “no one seeks for God” (Rom. 3:11), and that only by the Spirit can a person be made alive, belong to Christ, and walk in newness of life—then it presents a direct and decisive challenge to all forms of synergism, the belief that salvation is a cooperative effort between God and man.

These are not the conditions of someone who merely needs to "choose better" or "respond rightly." They describe someone who cannot and will not do so unless God mercifully intervenes by His Spirit. If the natural man does not seek God and cannot submit to His law or please Him, then he cannot be the one to take the first step toward salvation. That step must come from God alone.

The implication is this: salvation must be monergistic, not synergistic. That is, it must be the work of God alone—from beginning to end. As Paul writes elsewhere in the same letter:

“So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.”— Romans 9:16

Synergism, in light of Paul’s argument, is not merely mistaken—it misunderstands the depth of human depravity and overestimates the capacity of the flesh. It gives to man what Scripture reserves for the Spirit: the power to move toward God.

Article from Monergism

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“The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands.” -- R C Sproul