What we believe is always causal. It never comes about in a vacuum, no matter what that belief is. We choose in a sense what we believe, but there is a reason or reasons why we take something as our belief. And our beliefs that we adhere to are always based in our nature as human beings. Not our nature as individuals, but our very nature as humans. (All life has a built in nature.) Our nature as presented in the Bible, if we believe the Bible (and I do, but not by choosing to believe it, but because I completely do believe it, therefore choose to live, think, act, speak, as though I believe it.); the Bible tells us that by virtue of Adams rebellion against God, our nature is bent towards enmity with God. In every decision we make, our nature is influencing that decision, so that even when we choose good over evil, that nature is affected/infected in some way by our sinful nature. We may even choose to go to church and be a good and upright person and give lip service to loving God. But not in the way that He commanded. With all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind. Or to love our neighbor, ------except when they do something that infringes on us. We always, ultimately will prefer to have our way.
There has to be something causal that changes something in us, that turns that around. Something we can't do any more than anything can change its nature. It is called regeneration, or the new birth, as Jesus explained to Nicodemus. It is by God's grace, and it comes through faith in the person of Jesus, and the work that He did, His atoning sacrifice, to save us from ourselves; and it is this faith that is a gift of God, that all the glory be unto Him, and not our self. And when that is done for us, then when we hear the gospel, low and behold, we believe it. Whereas "the day before" we considered it foolishness if we even considered it at all.
