Transforming: The Church as Agent of Change in the Story of Zacchaeus
The Church can become a transformational agent in society when people, who are daily being transformed into the image of Christ, determine to live out “Kingdom” principles in the various arenas of their personal lives. The effect is magnified when these same individuals collectively ask how those principles might inform and transform the business of being “in this world,” but not “of this world.” This life is made possible by the enabling presence and power of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us as a pledge of the fullness to come (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 1:22).
God has always intended that our personal spiritual transformation have a societal impact.
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Next Issue (Winter 2009)
Transformation: The Church as Agent of Change in the Parable of the Good Samaritan
Notes
1 If Frederick Danker is correct and Zachaios is derived from the Hebrew Zakkai then his name points to the moral character of purity or uprightness. See F. Danker, ed. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University Press, 2000), 214. Cf. R. L. Harris, G.L. Archer and B.K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, vol. 1 (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), 548.
2 Everett Ferguson points out that the word translated “defrauded” in 19:8 (Gk. sukophanteo) actually means to “bring false charges.” See E. Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., 2nd ed., 1993), 88.
Category: Biblical Studies, Fall 2008