If you think upon this further ... you might realize that Jesus' person (i.e. goodness, works, teachings, etc.) must have ALREADY had an effect upon Zacchaeus ... in order to induce him to set aside his money-grubbing ways for a moment ... and take the time and effort (of climbing into a tree) to see Jesus ...
Although we would be wasting our time telling an unconverted sinner to repent, repentance for the converted believer is a good work that we do out of gratitude, not of requirement.
Zack would have heard about the miracles of healing and deliverance which would have shown him that Jesus had to be of God because no one could do those things unless God was with him. I don't think that he expected Jesus to even take notice of him, because he would have found it difficult to believe that a holy man like Jesus would want to stop and greet him, much less invite him to lunch! But Jesus did the unexpected and showed Zack that God loves and accepts him just as He is, and there is the promises that what God doesn't like about him, He will change him!
I'm going to do my best to always try to be as repentant as I can be and to repent of as much as I can out of my own personal Love, and personal level of gratitude for/toward or to God, for all He has done "for me", with me, personally... But I'm still not seeing much of a point really, beyond that, especially for others that have not had the same (level of) "experience" or experiences that I have had or have with God that I have had, ect, and that's a problem for me right now when trying to share the gospel with others right now, also...
Here's the beauty in Imputation. God imputed Adam's sin to us. Then God Imputed our sin to Christ. And then Imputed Christ's righteousness to us. All according to Romans 5. But look how we made out. Jesus is God, so we now have the infinite righteousness of God worthy of all the blessings only God deserves!!
Its not so complicated. Everything in salvation comes from God. But we cooperate. So salvation is worked out based on how we respond to Him, to grace given, beginning with the gift of faith but not ending with some one-time act of faith. Its a walk, a journey taking place throughout whatever time we're given to travel on it. The Parable of the Talents sheds much light on this.
Can God cause us to overcome sin, and how does that work if He can, or when and if He does, ect...?
I think of it in this way: did the prodigal son "earn" all the gifts which his father bestowed upon him? Or did his father bestow gifts far beyond what he deserved, only for the smallest most basic action on the sons part? The son did not even make it all the way back to his fathers estate before his father ran to meet him and start showering him with love, forgiveness, and many gifts. All that was necessary on the part of the prodigal son was to humbly acknowledge that he needed his father...that he would in fact rather be his fathers servant than his own master, and to begin the trip back to him.
Remember the parable of the talents. One steward was instructed to manage ten cities and another lost his entire investment capital (Luke 19:12-27). Who is the wise investor who does not invest in ponzi schemes and frauds? Las Vegas made more gamblers poor than rich.
God's servants are given grace to do His will and expected to "invest" it, and increase it, grace leading to more grace, justice to more justice, love to more love. More is expected from those give more-Luke 12:48. And the fate of those who refuse, who "bury" their talents, is not good. God desires perfection without expecting that we'll necessarily achieve it in this life. But that is to be our orientation.
First, no one has the capability to "do away with sin" meaning , in my understanding, eradicating from one's life, the ability to sin as well as conquering any and all temptations whether they are acted out or thought of. If this is in fact what you a talking about, it is an impossibility. If anyone claims to be in this condition, they have committed a sin in saying so.
No one does away with their own sin. If it is not forgiven, it remains and only God can remove it. If one can stop doing one sin, another still remains so it would be an endless process.
The only way to achieve success against sin is to stop trying to do it yourself and surrender to the Spirit which God gave through our baptism. Paul wrote that we should learn to walk in the Spirit, that is surrendering to it. As we let go of the need to trust our own selves and truly believe in God's desire to help cleanse us, we begin to find victory over sin. God removes the old desires and feeds us solid spiritual food.
