Can an unbeliever please God?

Romans 8:8 “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

If this verse were all we had to take into account you could make a convincing argument that “those who are controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God” means that all the unregenerate are always controlled by the sinful nature, and therefore an unbeliever can NEVER do anything God is happy about.

But because Acts 10 and Romans 2:12-16 seem to say unbelievers can make right choices, and even that those right choices, in Cornelius’s case (Acts 10:1-4), can please God, this means Romans 8:8 and similar passages are not all we have.