Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 29:2 (Summer 2025)
Article: Grace, Infused Habits, And Christ’s Humanity: A Comparison Between Thomas Aquinas And Francis Turretin
Author: Roberto A. Martinez

Grace, Infused Habits, And Christ’s Humanity: A Comparison Between Thomas Aquinas And Francis Turretin1

Roberto A. Martinez

Roberto A. Martinez is one of the pastors of Iglesia Bautista Gracia y Verdad, a Hispanic Reformed Baptist congregation in Louisville, Kentucky, and serves with the Hispanic Program at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He holds a Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary and is currently pursuing a PhD in Systematic Theology. His academic interests include Reformed Scholasticism, with particular attention to the theology of Francis Turretin. Roberto is married to Valentina, and together they have two young daughters.

The theology of infused habits in Francis Turretin exemplifies well the complexities of studying continuities and discontinuities in post- Reformation theology.2 The Reformed Orthodox engaged critically with the medieval scholastic tradition that preceded them, maintaining the core commitments of the Protestant Reformation.3 This reality is clearly illustrated by Francis Turretin’s interaction with Thomas Aquinas’ theology of infused habits.4 Here, I propose a comparative analysis of Aquinas and Turretin, trying to understand how Turretin integrates scholastic elements into the Reformed system. My thesis is that Turretin appropriates the ontological and transformative dimensions of the Thomistic doctrine of infused habits yet reinterprets them within a covenantal and Reformed framework that restricts their function exclusively to the sphere of regeneration and sanctification, without compromising the doctrine of justification by faith (sola fide). Thus, the incorporation of infused habits is generally treated

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as a soteriological reality— infused by the Spirit into the believer for the purposes of spiritual renewal. However, the case of Christ is unique in that he receives the infused habits of grace not for personal salvation, but as a transformative endowment intrinsically ordered to his mediatorial office. In this way, habitual grace in Christ preserves both the integrity of his true humanity and the orthodox contours of Chalcedonian Christology.

To prove my argument, the paper is divided into three sections. First, I examine the distinct ontological frameworks within which Aquinas and Turretin develop their respective doctrines of grace. Second, I analyze their conceptions of habitual grace, with special attention to its ontological nature, function, and relation to the doctrine of justification. Third, I compare how each theologian applies the notion of habitu...