Psalm 3:8 proclaims that “salvation belongs to the LORD.”

Read that like this: Salvation belongs to the Trinity.

Our redemption is the joint effort of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

A phrase the theologians use to describe how God works is inseparable operations. What this means is that no one Person of the Trinity is ever working alone.

If one did—you would not have a Trinity. You would have three Gods.

So for example—in creation, the Father creates all things through the Son (the Word), by the Holy Spirit (see Genesis 1:1-3; John 1:1-5; Colossians 1:16).

A general pattern is established here for the ad extra work of of the Trinity. (Ad extra means a work external to God; relations within the Trinity are called ad intra.)

That pattern is: From the Father; through the Son; by the Holy Spirit.

Likewise, we will see this pattern more or less in everything given for our redemption.

For example: How does the Incarnation happen? The Father sends the Son. How does the Father send the Son? By the Holy Spirit.

That’s what the angel Gabriel told the perplexed virgin Mary when she protested: How can I have a child? I’m kind of a virgin here!

The angel replied to her, ‘“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

Luke 1:35 CSB

The Son comes from the Father, by the Spirit.

How about the atonement Christ made for humans at the cross? He offered His life to the Father, on our behalf. And here’s something that’s often overlooked: He offered Himself as a sacrifice by the Holy Spirit.

Notice Hebrews 9:14:

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?

CSB, emphasis added

Christ the Son offered Himself to the Father, through the Spirit.

Now, how does God apply salvation to individual humans? Salvation comes from the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit.

We see this plainly in the first chapter of Ephesians.

We are chosen by the Father, in and through Christ the Son:

For he [the Father] chose us in him, [the Son] before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will

Ephesians 1:4-5 CSB

So the Father chooses us through the Son; and next, St. Paul tells us that our salvation is sealed by the Spirit:

In him [the Son] you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed.

Ephesians 1:13 CSB

What about our prayers? How to they come to the Father? By the Spirit, through the Son.

Romans 8:26 tells us that the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. (CSB)

The Spirit intercedes for us from within and among us; but the Son intercedes for us with the Father: Christ Jesus … also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. (Romans 8:34 CSB)

Think of it like this: The Holy Spirit sanctifies the prayers of the saints, and joins them to the Son’s prayer for us.

And the prayers of Christ the Son play a definite role in our salvation. Hebrews 7:25 assures believers that:

[Christ] is able to save completely those who come to God through him, since he always lives to intercede for them.

CSB

Christ Jesus is always at the right hand of the Father, praying for us that no matter how we struggle with sin and suffering in this life, our faith will not fail (see Luke 22:32).

Christ is able to save us completely because He is always praying that the Father—by the Spirit—will preserve and sustain our faith until the end:

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 CSB

Finally, our resurrection to glory will be the work of the Triune God.

In the fullness of time, the Father will send the Son. And we shall be raised and transformed in Him and through Him—to be immortal, imperishable, and incorruptible.

So we are told:

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.

Philippians 3:20-21 CSB

We know that when he appears, we will be like him …

1 John 3:2 CSB

And we will be resurrected to glory by the Holy Spirit:

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.

Romans 8:11 CSB

So from beginning to end—from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV)—salvation is the work of the Triune God.

Salvation belongs to the LORD: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.