Romans 8:8

On the other hand, God is no more the friend of the flesh than the flesh is of Him. The δέ 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 Romans 8:9.

To be in the flesh is a still stronger expression than to be after the flesh, Romans 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 (Romans 8:9-11).