God as Trinity: Roles Without Rank of Being

Economic Trinity is a phrase theologians use, and it is less technical than it sounds.
It means looking at the three from the perspective of God's saving activity. Rather than asking what each person is in the abstract, it asks what each does - the roles the Father, Son and Spirit take in specific works they are involved in, like creation and salvation. The Father sends. The Son comes and does the will of the one who sent him. The Spirit is given.
Two things keep this from going wrong.
The first: these roles do not occur one at a time. They often overlap. That is exactly what rules out the modes explanation from two posters ago - at the Jordan, all three are acting simultaneously.
The second, and this is the load-bearing one: a difference in role does not mean a difference of essence. Scripture does contain descriptions where one person appears subordinate to another in function. That is about role within the work of salvation. It is not a statement that one is less God than another. Some accounts of the economic Trinity push it further than that, into members being permanently subject to the authority of others - which is where care is needed.
Scripture links:
- John 6:38 - I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
- Galatians 4:4-6 - God sent forth his Son; God has sent the Spirit of his Son.
- John 14:26 - the Helper, whom the Father will send in my name.
Different work. Same God.