“THE law is spiritual,” and “the carnal mind [the natural mind, the mind of the flesh] is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh can not please God.” Romans 7:14; 8:7, 8
How then shall we please God? How shall we become subject to the law of God? The Saviour says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh;” and we have just read in Romans that “they that are in the flesh can not please God.” But the Saviour says, further, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Therefore it is certain that except we are born of the Spirit, we cannot please God; we cannot be subject to the law of God, which is spiritual, and demands spiritual service. This, too, is precisely what the Saviour says: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.”
We know that some will say that the kingdom of God here referred to is the kingdom of glory, and that the new birth, the birth of the Spirit, is not until the resurrection, and that then we enter the kingdom of God, but such a view is altogether wrong. Except a man be born of the Spirit, he must still remain in the flesh. But the Scripture says, “They that are in the flesh can not please God,” And the man who does not please God will never see the kingdom of God, whether it be the kingdom of grace or of glory.