This Christmas, we are called to remember well how we got clean. We will never know the grandeur and greatness of the good news that gives great joy – the birth of Jesus – unless we acknowledge and embrace the utter impossibility of our condition without Jesus. Apart from Him, we are hopelessly lost, slaves and enemies that stand condemned and separated from our Heavenly Father. But when He appeared, Jesus saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. He makes us clean, not with water but with His precious blood on the cross.