Romans 8 pretty much nullifies that argument.
Most of Romans 8 is addressing believers:
Ro. 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus,
I am and have been talking about nonbelievers and not those already in Christ Jesus. All mature adults start out sinners in need and some become Disciples of Christ, so we are talking about the transition to believer from nonbelieve.
Ro.8: 5- 8 supports what I am saying and just said in post 228, so lets look at it:
Ro. 8:5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
I said: They (nonbelievers) have not obtained Godly type Love, by accepting God's charity/Love as a free gift. They have only
carnal motivations to work with
nothing noble or praise worthy so what can you expect?
They are wimps and surrenders, and
there is nothing noble about surrendering.
They can just be willing to humbly accept pure charity (God can work with that and shower them with unbelievable gifts).
Having really only selfish desires (like I describe) is “have their minds set on what the flesh desires”.
6 “The mind governed by the flesh is death” so the nonbeliever is hell bound (which is heading for the second death). Even dead people by Christ's definition of death he used in the prodigal son story Luke 15 can turn to the Father.
7”The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God…” Very much so since God is his enemy sending the nonbeliever to hell, the nonbeliever does not want to do anything for God.
“it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so”, Why should he/she submit?
“8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” as Paul stated in 1 Cor. 13: 1-3 if you do not have Love you can do nothing of value and the nonbeliever does not have this Godly type Love, so he/she can do nothing of value for others including God.
What Romans 8 does not address is what the sinner must "do" prior to God transitioning the mind from having a fleshly centered to a Spiritual centered, since the
sinner cannot "do" anything: worthy, noble, deserving, Spiritual, submissive to orders, Loving or valuable. What the sinner can "do" is for very selfish reasons surrender to his enemy God who at the moment of his surrender is still very much the sinner’s enemy. That surrendering means the sinner is humbly willing to allow God to do stuff to him and even possibly for him, but the sinner is not at that point doing anything for God, but being a nuisance to God; begging for undeserved mercy.
