10 Weeks on the Trinity: Knowing the Trinity – Inseparable Operations

In this concluding lecture from the For the Church Institute, Matthew Barrett introduces his listeners to the doctrine of inseparable operations. This doctrine reveals that the external works of the Trinity are undivided and, indeed, indivisible. The triune God works as one because he is one.

Barrett examines Ephesians 1, one of the richest trinitarian passages in all of the Bible, and shows how triune works such as creation and salvation are the act of one God. With Augustine, this allows us to proclaim, “All the works of the one God are the works of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

Barrett then explains how we are to understand the doctrine of inseparable operations in relation to divine appropriations. Divine appropriations allows us to speak of the persons in ways that correspond to their eternal relations of origin, and thus we may “appropriate” a work to one divine person in a certain manner. However, the “Dream Team” believes this qualification heightens the unified work of the Trinity rather than divides it.

Join Dr. Barrett to learn key trinitarian concepts, which can safeguard us from future Trinity drift and help us find our way home to a biblical and orthodox understanding of the Trinity. Sign up for the full course through the For the Church Institute. And if you enjoy this first lecture then read chapter 10 of his book, Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit (Baker, 2021).

Unit 10: Introduction and Lecture