@cv5, is it possible to please God in the flesh all while not walking after the flesh?
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3)
“And lo a voice from heaven, saying,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:17)
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed
himself to him that judgeth righteously (1 Peter 2:21-23)
If “in the flesh” (physical body) automatically means “cannot please God,” then Jesus could not have pleased God.
That alone proves Paul means something different by “flesh” in Romans 8:8.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)
But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel,
even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. (1 Thess. 2:4)
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (Tim. 4:7-8)
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1 Cor. 9:27)
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (Rom. 6:12-13)