We cannot save ourselves as scripture plainly says. but we can realize our condition and WANT a solution.
No man realizes their condition before God without the Holy Spirit making him or her realize it ( Acts of the Apostles 2:37 ).
But, to ask the question,
"How does a person who hates Jesus Christ the light of the world ( John 3:19-20 ) change their mind and start to love Him?
" We love him, because he first loved us." ( 1 John 4:19 ).
There's only one reason a person who hates Jesus Christ comes to love Him.
Because He first loved them.
Cause ( God's love for His children ) ----------->
Effect ( His children loving Him back ).
We may not know of Christ but desire a solution.
No one I know of has come to Christ based on the premise that they desire a solution to address their
sin problem...without the Holy Spirit being the cause of coming to that realization.
Everyone I know,
that truly loves the Lord, has come to Him because of something unexplainable, connected directly with their exposure to His word; not to a desire to know God or an emptiness because they've realized their sin condition first.
Cause ( God drawing or calling through His word ) ------------>
Effect ( a person responding in faith and repentance, confessing Christ as Saviour ).
The Bible teaches that men love sin and darkness rather than light ( Romans 1:32, John 3:19 )
The Bible teaches that no one seeks God ( Romans 3:10-12 ).
The Bible teaches that no man comes to Him outside of God the Father drawing them ( John 6:44 )
The Bible teaches that no man comes to Him ( believes on Christ ) outside of God doing the work ( John 6:29 ).
In the end, the Bible teaches that salvation is entirely of God.
I know of no one that has come to true faith in Christ, and exhibits the fruits of the Spirit, that does not know that their coming to Him was mysterious, from their end, and they then find out the how and why afterwards...
That salvation is by grace through faith, not of their own efforts.
We have been given the power or exousia power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases,the power of authority (influence) and of right (privilege) to become sons of God
No, we haven't.
Those who "receive" Him do so because they are the recipients of God's work ( John 6:29 ), not because they do so of their own "volition".
Again, free will that accomplishes a person's desire to escape Hell by coming to Christ is an illusion.
One cannot come to Christ unless they are drawn, and all that are drawn will participate in the first resurrection ( John 6:44 ).
So, if anyone does not come to Christ, it's because they were not drawn...not because their will "got in the way".
God's will is more powerful, by far, than man's will.
There is nothing in Scripture that says that man's will over-rides God's will....attempts at persuasive arguments notwithstanding.
Here's the passage I believe you have referenced above:
" He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name:
13 which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." ( John 1:11-13 )
In verse 12, the word,
"elabon" in the Greek means, " received" or "obtained"...not "gained" or "chosen".
Subtle, but different.
The difference is between something being given and received, and something being taken or acquired.
"Exousian " in the Greek means "power" or "authority / right"...privilege, not power of choice or influence.
" Genesthai " means "to-be-becoming", "be-granted", " to occur", " to take place / happen" or "come to pass"...not to go from
one thing ( a child of the Devil ) to the other ( a child of God ).
Finally, verse 13 tells us that man's will or his position in some bloodline ( like being a Jew, for example ) does not determine or "trigger" the process of being born again...God does.
