The Retraining of the Palate

Researchers at Harvard and elsewhere have documented a remarkable phenomenon. When patients eliminate processed sugar from their diets for just two to three weeks, their taste buds physically change. Foods they once craved — syrupy sodas, frosted pastries — begin to taste sickeningly sweet. Meanwhile, a simple strawberry becomes almost unbearably delicious. The palate hasn't just adjusted. It has been retrained.

Paul tells Titus that the grace of God does something similar to the human soul. Grace doesn't merely forgive and leave us unchanged. It "teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions." The Greek word here — paideuo — carries the sense of training, the way a parent forms a child's character through years of patient instruction.

When grace enters a life, it begins retraining our spiritual palate. The sins that once seemed irresistible slowly lose their sweetness. The cheap thrills that once captivated us begin to taste hollow. And the things of God — prayer, generosity, integrity, worship — become richer, more satisfying than we ever imagined.

This is the miracle Paul celebrates. Grace doesn't just pardon the sinner. It transforms the sinner's appetites. The same grace that saves us is the grace that trains us to live "self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age."