Jesus came to seek the lost

^{Luke 19
1} Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
 ⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
 ⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
 ⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
 ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

This is a well known passage to me.  I was raised in the Baptist Church.  I can sing the little song I learned in Vacation Bible School about Zacchaeus to this day.  The song however does not touch on the redemption that is so apparent in this great scripture.  The song in fact ends when Jesus says to Zacchaeus "For I am going to your house today."  There is no mention of verses 7 through 9 in the song.   First, Jesus is muttered about for going to a sinners house.  Then, Zacchaeus repents and gives money to the poor and makes amends to those he has stolen from.  Finally, Jesus tells him that he is saved.  It might seem that Zacchaeus is saved because of his repentance, but this is not so of course.  It is Zacchaeus repentance that proves that he is already saved.  Zacchaeus' love for the Lord has made him repent, turn away from his wrong actions and become generous.  Zacchaeus is even willing to return his stolen goods with interest.  This is an act of real repentance.