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Stronger and Closer Connection to God through Multiple Covenants
From a devotional address given to students at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, USA, on March 5, 2024. For the full address, visit speeches.byu.edu.
To grow and receive the kind of life Heavenly Father has, we each need to make and keep covenants with God.
The covenants God established are based on eternal, unchanging law. There is only one way to return to live with God, and it is designated as the covenant path. The phrase covenant path refers to the series of covenants through which we come unto Christ and connect to Him and our Heavenly Father. Making and keeping covenants is how we reconcile ourselves to God. These covenants are nonnegotiable. Through them, the Lord transforms, saves, and exalts us. We make them by participating in priesthood ordinances. In return for keeping these covenants, God guarantees us certain blessings. A covenant is a pledge that we should prepare for, clearly understand, and absolutely honor.
For everyone, the covenant path starts with the covenant of baptism (see 2 Nephi 31:17–18). For men, the covenant path includes the essential step of receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood. For all, the covenant path continues with the covenants in the temple endowment, in which we covenant to obey five laws. These five laws, however, are not separable—you cannot choose to obey a subset of the five; you covenant to obey all five or none. The final covenant we make with God in the temple is the one that is made when a man and a woman are sealed together in the new and everlasting covenant of marriage (see Doctrine and Covenants 131:1–4).
Why are multiple covenants needed? It is because the multiple covenants are not only sequential but are also additive and even synergistic in our relationship with God. Each covenant adds a bond, drawing us closer to and strengthening our connection with God.
President Russell M. Nelson suggests that we deepen our relationship with God when we make multiple covenants. He said: “God has a special love for each person who makes a covenant with Him in the waters of baptism. And that divine love deepens as additional covenants are made and faithfully kept.”
This means that we develop a stronger and closer connection to God through those multiple covenants. When we confront life’s challenges, the likelihood is decreased that we distance ourselves from God.
1. Baptism
Baptism is the first covenant that everyone makes on the covenant path. The baptismal covenant is a public witness to Heavenly Father of three specific commitments: to serve God, to keep His commandments, and to be willing to take on the name of Jesus Christ (see 2 Nephi 31:7, 13–14; Mosiah 18:10; 21:32, 35; Doctrine and Covenants 20:37). The other facets that are frequently associated with the baptismal covenant—that we “bear one another’s burdens,” “mourn with those that mourn,” and “comfort those that [are] in need of comfort” (Mosiah 18:8, 9)—are fruits of making the covenant rather than part of the actual covenant. These facets are important because they are what a converted soul would naturally do.
2. The Endowment
The next covenant that everyone makes on the covenant path is the endowment. As I mentioned, the endowment includes covenants to obey five inseparable laws. As I review each, see how they align with and reinforce aspects of the baptismal covenant.
First, we covenant in the endowment to “live the law of obedience,” which means that we “strive to keep Heavenly Father’s commandments.” This covenant aligns squarely under the baptismal covenant promise to keep God’s commandments.
Second, we covenant to “obey the law of sacrifice, which means sacrificing to support the Lord’s work and repenting with a broken heart and contrite spirit.” This covenant aligns with the baptismal promises to serve God and to keep His commandments. Additionally, repentance is a key aspect of taking on the name of Jesus Christ.
Third, we covenant to “obey the law of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” We do this, in part, by living the doctrine of Christ. This includes “making covenants with God by receiving the ordinances of salvation and exaltation” and keeping those covenants throughout our lives. The covenant includes “striving to live the two great commandments”: to love God and neighbor (see Matthew 22:37, 39). This covenant aligns with all three aspects of the baptismal covenant.
Fourth, we covenant to keep God’s “law of chastity, which means abstaining from sexual relations outside of a legal marriage between a man and a woman.”
President Jeffrey R. Holland, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said: “Marriage was intended [by God] to mean the complete merger of a man and a woman—their hearts, hopes, lives, love, family, future, everything. … They were to be ‘one flesh’ in their life together [see Genesis 2:23–24].”
We cannot achieve the kind of life our Heavenly Father enjoys without a complete commitment to fidelity within a marriage to our husband or wife according to God’s plan. This covenant aligns with the aspect of the baptismal covenant to keep God’s commandments.
Fifth, we covenant to “keep the law of consecration,” meaning that we dedicate ourselves and everything the Lord blesses us with to build up His Church. The keys of the holy priesthood were restored so that priesthood ordinances could be performed, allowing us to make covenants with God. It is only through the restored Church of Jesus Christ that this can be done for God’s children on both sides of the veil. We pledge our support to God’s work. This covenant aligns with the aspect of the baptismal covenant to serve God. Additionally, this covenant aligns with taking on ourselves the name of Christ because living it requires us to permanently maintain a mightily changed heart.
3. The Sealing of a Woman and a Man Together
Now the stage is set for the covenant associated with the sealing of a woman and a man together. In this ordinance they receive promises, they make a covenant with each other, and they make a covenant with God. To review the promises, let us go back thousands of years. Abraham received the gospel (see Doctrine and Covenants 84:14; Abraham 2:11) and entered into celestial marriage, which is the covenant of exaltation (see Doctrine and Covenants 131:1–4; 132:19, 29). Abraham received a promise that all the blessings of his covenant would be offered to his mortal posterity (see Doctrine and Covenants 132:29–31; Abraham 2:6–11). Everyone who embarks on the covenant path becomes “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29).
When a man and a woman are sealed to each other, they are promised these blessings, just as Abraham was. The blessings include that they will “come forth in the first resurrection; … inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions …; and they shall pass by the angels … to their exaltation and glory in all things …, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:19; see also verse 20). During the sealing, a woman makes a covenant with her husband and a man makes a covenant with his wife. The tasks of mortality become joint. Husband and wife both enter into an order of the priesthood that neither could enter singly and that is necessary to enter the highest degree of the celestial kingdom (see Doctrine and Covenants 131:1–4). They serve each other and their children and thereby serve God. As a man and a woman are sealed, they covenant with God to keep all the commandments related to marriage in the new and everlasting covenant.
The elements of the endowment and the sealing align with and reinforce all three aspects of the baptismal covenant. Each aspect of the baptismal covenant and the covenants of the endowment and sealing overlap and mutually reinforce each other.
We are not forced or compelled in any way to stay in a covenantal relationship with God even after we choose to make these covenants. When we make a covenantal bond with God, we share a covenant with Him. We experience and participate together in the covenant. This is also true for a woman and a man when they are sealed; they make a covenant with each other. I believe it is misleading to think that one is bound to the other for eternity; they are not enslaved, coerced, shackled, or under compulsion. Rather, they share and experience the covenant together. Agency continues to be an overriding component of eternal marriage. President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, said: “We also know that [God] will force no one into a sealing relationship against his or her will. The blessings of a sealed relationship are assured for all who keep their covenants but never by forcing a sealed relationship on another person who is unworthy or unwilling.” No one will be forced to live in a marriage they do not choose or accept, even after the temple sealing.
Multiple Covenants Bind Us More Strongly to God
Multiple covenants draw us closer to God and strengthen our connection to Him. The purpose of these bonds is to help us become more converted, faithful, and committed disciples of Jesus Christ. My personal experience suggests that, over time, the adults who have been baptized, endowed, and sealed to a spouse are the most likely to maintain and deepen their discipleship along the covenant path. Less likely to do so are the adults who have been baptized and endowed but are not sealed to a spouse. Least likely to maintain and deepen their discipleship over time are the adults who have been baptized but are not endowed. As our discipleship matures, we add the covenants of the endowment to our baptismal covenant. That binds us more strongly to God. Then, if the blessing comes of being sealed to a spouse, the covenant bond can become even stronger.
Please remember, though, that these factors are not determinative. You and I know individuals who have not been endowed who are remarkably faithful disciples of Christ, and we know those who have been sealed to a spouse who are not. Faithfulness is an individual choice about how we live the covenants we have made. Not being sealed to a spouse does not halt your progression in your discipleship to the Savior. As you continue being valiant to your testimony of Jesus Christ, your progression continues.
Invitations to Those Not Yet Endowed
That said, as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have invitations for each of you. My invitation for those who have been baptized but who are not yet endowed is that you prepare for and receive your endowment. The decision to receive the endowment is personal and should be made prayerfully. It depends only on your agency—no one else’s. Further, it is not the role of anyone else—leaders, friends, peer groups, family, or me—to decide this for you or unduly influence you to do so. Many of you already meet all the criteria to be endowed if you feel a desire to receive and honor sacred temple covenants throughout your life. In the General Handbook we read:
“Members may choose to receive their own endowment when they meet all of the following conditions:
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They are at least 18 years old.
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They have completed or are no longer attending high school, secondary school, or the equivalent.
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One full year has passed since their confirmation.
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They feel a desire to receive and honor sacred temple covenants throughout their lives.”
Until you are ready, continue to prepare. This includes doing family history work and qualifying for and using a temple recommend for proxy baptisms and confirmations. Also, focus intently on the covenant you have already made. Conscientiously partake of the sacrament weekly. If you choose to miss sacrament meeting when you could attend, you place yourself in spiritual jeopardy. Continue to faithfully live the gospel of Jesus Christ. As you accept this invitation, it will draw you closer to God.
Invitations to Those Not Yet Sealed
Let us turn to those who have been baptized and endowed but who are not sealed to a spouse. We all know that being sealed to a spouse involves someone else’s agency. You do not determine this step solely on your own. My invitation focuses on what you can do.
If being sealed to a spouse is not yet your blessing to the extent that it involves your agency, do not delay taking advantage of your opportunities. Do not close the door to the possibility. In May 2023, President Dallin H. Oaks taught:
“A loving Heavenly Father has a plan for His young adults, and part of that plan is marriage and children.
“… We counsel you to channel your associations with the opposite sex into dating patterns that have the potential to mature into marriage.”
Remember, eternal life is not a question of current marital status but of discipleship; that is, being “valiant in the testimony of Jesus” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:79; see also 121:29). You receive access to the grace of Christ through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. Additionally, I invite you to focus on the covenants you have made. Go to the temple often and participate in family history work. Conscientiously partake of the sacrament weekly. As you do, you will strengthen your connection with Jesus Christ (see 3 Nephi 18:12–13).
To those who are never sealed to a spouse in this life or those whose sealing didn’t turn out as hoped, consider this comforting promise made by President Lorenzo Snow in 1899. Speaking of unmarried women, he stated: “There seems to be considerable lamentation in regard to this condition. There is no need of this particularly. …[But] some very foolish doctrine has been presented to some of the sisters in regard to this and other things of a kindred nature. … There is no Latter-day Saint who dies after having lived a faithful life who will lose anything because of having failed to do certain things when opportunities were not furnished him or her. … They will have all the blessings, exaltation and glory that any man or woman will have who had this opportunity. … [They] will have means furnished them by which they can secure all the blessings necessary for persons in the married condition.”
I feel compelled to add that you should not obsess about whether you had the opportunity to be sealed to a spouse and missed it or that your sealing in a house of the Lord did not turn out as you hoped. Do not second guess yourself. God’s grace is sufficient for all. Anything “that is unfair in life can [and will] be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.” As you accept this invitation, this too will draw you closer to God.
Invitations to Those Sealed to a Spouse
For those who have been sealed to a spouse, this sealing is a milestone in your life, not a bookend. You need to press forward and focus on the covenants you have made, just as I have encouraged the others to do: conscientiously partaking of the sacrament, worshipping in the temple, and doing family history work. In addition, seek to become a better spouse by acquiring Christlike attributes. Become the spouse your spouse deserves. If you are blessed to be a parent, become the parent your children deserve. As you accept this invitation, this too will draw you closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and strengthen your covenantal bonds with Them.
Invitations for All
Whether you have made one or multiple covenants, heed the Savior’s caution:
“But there is a possibility that man may fall from grace and depart from the living God;
“Therefore let the church take heed and pray always, lest they fall into temptation;
“Yea, and even let those who are sanctified take heed also” (Doctrine and Covenants 20:32–34).
God established multiple covenants to bless us, not condemn us. Focusing intently on the covenants we have made and preparing for the next one is the best way to prepare to receive all that Heavenly Father has. It is how we “think celestial.” I testify that Jesus Christ is mighty to save. He desires a close relationship with you, even a covenantal relationship. I pray that you may make covenants with real intent and allow those covenants to bless you now and into the eternities.