What Is the Doctrine of Inseparable Operations?
God Is One
When Brandon and I talk to our students about this, I, in particular, like to use the illustration of a pie chart. You’ve got this pie, and when most people think about the Trinity, whether it’s what God does or who he is, we tend to split God up into three pieces of that pie. And when we talk about God’s actions—because that’s what the doctrine of inseparable operations is addressing—we split it up between what the Father does, but not the Son and the Spirit; or what the Son does, but not the Father and the Spirit; or what the Spirit does and not the Father and the Son.
Beholding the Triune God
Matthew Y. Emerson, Brandon D. Smith
This concise introduction to the doctrine of inseparable operations explores the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in relation to salvation, revelation, communion, and more.
So we say things like the Father is the one who plans, or the Son is the one who saves, or the Spirit is the one who gives gifts—as if the other two persons in any one of those actions isn't involved. But in fact, and this is what the doctrine of inseparable operations affirms, all of God’s actions are one because God is one. All three persons are all the time acting as the one God because they are the one God. So instead of splitting all of God’s actions up in that pie chart, what the doctrine of inseparable operations is saying is (it’s a big phrase using two big words) is that God is one, so he acts as one.
Matthew Y. Emerson is coauthor with Brandon D. Smith of Beholding the Triune God: The Inseparable Work of Father, Son, and Spirit.
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