“Chapter 10: A Covenant Relationship with God,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Russell M. Nelson (2023)
“Chapter 10,” Teachings: Russell M. Nelson
Chapter 10
A Covenant Relationship with God
All those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy.
From the Life of Russell M. Nelson
President Russell M. Nelson wrote:
“Several times in my life, I have come face-to-face with death. One of those occurred in Maputo, Mozambique, in late May 2009. While dining at the mission home there with Elder William W. Parmley, the Africa Southeast Area President, and his wife, Shanna, and with Mozambique Maputo Mission president, Blair J. Packard, and his wife, Cindy, three men with automatic weapons burst into the room.
“In the melee that followed, one robber put a gun to my head, announced they were there to kill me and abduct my wife, and then pulled the trigger. The gun made a clicking sound but did not fire. … I was certain that this was the end for me. …
“Through a series of miraculous events—and thanks in no small part to the heroic actions of Sister Cindy Packard—our lives were spared. However, as I had on several previous frightening occasions, I realized how fragile life is and how relatively few things there are in this world that have eternal significance. As those robbers threatened our lives, I was not thinking about awards or educational degrees or commendations. I was thinking about my family and the covenants I had made with the Lord.
“I fear that too many of us are living our lives as though this life is all there is, that life will not continue after death, and that what we do here has no bearing on the future. That is simply not true.
“It is imperative that we not get distracted and pulled off the covenant path by the world’s ‘shiny objects,’ meaning the honors and attention of men. Those events are of no importance whatsoever in the next world. What will matter is if we have made covenants with God and kept them.”
Teachings of Russell M. Nelson
1
A covenant is a sacred promise with God
One of the most important concepts of revealed religion is that of a sacred covenant. In legal language, a covenant generally denotes an agreement between two or more parties. But in a religious context, a covenant is much more significant. It is a sacred promise with God. He fixes the terms. Each person may choose to accept those terms. If one accepts the terms of the covenant and obeys God’s law, he or she receives the blessings associated with the covenant. …
Through the ages, God has made covenants with His children. His covenants occur throughout the entire plan of salvation and are therefore part of the fulness of His gospel.
Study Question
What do you know about God and His character that inspires you to make covenants with Him?
2
Covenants are intended to be binding and create a relationship with everlasting ties
Adam and Eve accepted the ordinance of baptism and began the process of being one with God. They had entered the covenant path.
When you and I also enter that path, we have a new way of life. We thereby create a relationship with God that allows Him to bless and change us. The covenant path leads us back to Him. If we let God prevail in our lives, that covenant will lead us closer and closer to Him. All covenants are intended to be binding. They create a relationship with everlasting ties.
Entering into a covenant relationship with God binds us to [Christ] in a way that makes everything about life easier. Please do not misunderstand me: I did not say that making covenants makes life easy. In fact, expect opposition, because the adversary does not want you to discover the power of Jesus Christ. But yoking yourself with the Savior means you have access to His strength and redeeming power.
To each member of the Church I say, keep on the covenant path. Your commitment to follow the Savior by making covenants with Him and then keeping those covenants will open the door to every spiritual blessing and privilege available to men, women, and children everywhere. …
Now, if you have stepped off the path, may I invite you with all the hope in my heart to please come back. Whatever your concerns, whatever your challenges, there is a place for you in this, the Lord’s Church. You and generations yet unborn will be blessed by your actions now to return to the covenant path. Our Father in Heaven cherishes His children, and He wants each of us to return home to Him. This is a grand goal of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—to help each of us to come back home.
Study Question
How has your covenant relationship with God made your life easier—including during times of adversity?
3
Those who covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy
Once we make a covenant with God, we leave neutral ground forever. God will not abandon His relationship with those who have forged such a bond with Him. In fact, all those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy. In the Hebrew language, that covenantal love is called hesed (חֶסֶד).
Hesed has no adequate English equivalent. Translators of the King James Version of the Bible must have struggled with how to render hesed in English. They often chose “lovingkindness.” This captures much but not all the meaning of hesed. Other translations were also rendered, such as “mercy” and “goodness.” Hesed is a unique term describing a covenant relationship in which both parties are bound to be loyal and faithful to each other. …
Hesed is a special kind of love and mercy that God feels for and extends to those who have made a covenant with Him. And we reciprocate with hesed for Him.
Because God has hesed for those who have covenanted with Him, He will love them. He will continue to work with them and offer them opportunities to change. He will forgive them when they repent. And should they stray, He will help them find their way back to Him.
Once you and I have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him becomes much closer than before our covenant. Now we are bound together. Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us. Each of us has a special place in God’s heart. He has high hopes for us. …
Making a covenant with God changes our relationship with Him forever. It blesses us with an extra measure of love and mercy. It affects who we are and how God will help us become what we can become. …
The covenant path is all about our relationship with God—our hesed relationship with Him. When we enter a covenant with God, we have made a covenant with Him who will always keep His word. He will do everything He can, without infringing on our agency, to help us keep ours.
Study Questions
When have you felt God’s lovingkindness, mercy, and goodness? How has your relationship with God changed as you have kept covenants with him?
4
Everyone who makes and keeps covenants with God has direct access to His power
We live in the day that “our forefathers have awaited with anxious expectation” [Doctrine and Covenants 121:27]. We have front-row seats to witness live what the prophet Nephi saw only in vision, that “the power of the Lamb of God” would descend “upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” [1 Nephi 14:14].
We enter the covenant path by being baptized and making our first covenant with God. Each time we partake of the sacrament, we promise again to take the name of the Savior upon us, to remember Him, and to keep His commandments. In return, God assures us that we may always have the Spirit of the Lord to be with us.
Later we make additional covenants in the temple, where we receive even greater promises. Ordinances and covenants give us access to godly power. The covenant path is the only path that leads to exaltation and eternal life. …
Walking the covenant path, coupled with daily repentance, fuels positive spiritual momentum.
We … increase the Savior’s power in our lives when we make sacred covenants and keep those covenants with precision. Our covenants bind us to Him and give us godly power. …
Covenant-keeping men and women seek for ways to keep themselves unspotted from the world so there will be nothing blocking their access to the Savior’s power.
The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power—power that strengthens us to withstand our trials, temptations, and heartaches better. This power eases our way. Those who live the higher laws of Jesus Christ have access to His higher power. Thus, covenant keepers are entitled to a special kind of rest that comes to them through their covenantal relationship with God.
Study Question
When have you experienced heavenly power because of your covenants?
5
Those who make and keep sacred covenants are promised eternal life and exaltation
The Savior’s gift of immortality comes to all who have ever lived. But His gift of eternal life requires repentance and obedience to specific ordinances and covenants. Essential ordinances of the gospel symbolize the Atonement [of Jesus Christ]. Baptism by immersion is symbolic of the death, burial, and Resurrection of the Redeemer. Partaking of the sacrament renews baptismal covenants and also renews our memory of the Savior’s broken flesh and of the blood He shed for us. Ordinances of the temple symbolize our reconciliation with the Lord and seal families together forever. Obedience to the sacred covenants made in temples qualifies us for eternal life—the greatest gift of God to man.
The Savior Himself has made it abundantly clear that while His Resurrection assures that every person who ever lived will indeed be resurrected and live forever, much more is required if we want to have the high privilege of exaltation. Salvation is an individual matter, but exaltation is a family matter. …
So, what is required for a family to be exalted forever? We qualify for that privilege by making covenants with God, keeping those covenants, and receiving essential ordinances.
This has been true since the beginning of time. Adam and Eve, Noah and his wife, Abraham and Sarah, Lehi and Sariah, and all other devoted disciples of Jesus Christ—since the world was created—have made the same covenants with God. They have received the same ordinances that we as members of the Lord’s restored Church today have made: those covenants that we receive at baptism and in the temple.
The Savior invites all to follow Him into the waters of baptism and, in time, to make additional covenants with God in the temple and receive and be faithful to those further essential ordinances. All these are required if we want to be exalted with our families and with God forever.
The anguish of my heart is that many people whom I love, whom I admire, and whom I respect decline His invitation. They ignore the pleadings of Jesus Christ when He beckons, “Come, follow me” [Luke 18:22].
I understand why God weeps [see Moses 7:28–29]. I also weep for such friends and relatives. They are wonderful men and women, devoted to their family and civic responsibilities. They give generously of their time, energy, and resources. And the world is better for their efforts. But they have chosen not to make covenants with God. They have not received the ordinances that will exalt them with their families and bind them together forever.
Those who make sacred covenants and keep them are promised eternal life and exaltation, “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7). Jesus Christ is the guarantor of those covenants. Covenant keepers who love God and allow Him to prevail over all other things in their lives make Him the most powerful influence in their lives.
Study Question
In what ways are your covenants helping you to prepare for exaltation with Heavenly Father?
6
Teach the world about the beauty and power of the everlasting covenant
The Lord has commanded that we spread the gospel and share the covenant. … He wishes for every one of His children to have the opportunity to choose the Savior’s gospel and embark upon the covenant path. God wants to connect all people to the covenant He made anciently with Abraham. …
… There is a huge need to spread the gospel to people on the other side of the veil. God wants everyone, on both sides of the veil, to enjoy the blessings of His covenant. The covenant path is open to all. We plead with everyone to walk that path with us.
People throughout the whole world are desperately in need of the blessings that flow from the gospel. They need an understanding of God’s plan for them and the enabling covenants that can bind them to Him and to their families for eternity.
Our calling as covenant Israel is to make sure every member of the Church realizes the joy and privileges associated with making covenants with God. It is a call to encourage every covenant-keeping man and woman, boy and girl, to share the gospel with those who come within their sphere of influence. It is also a call to support and encourage our missionaries, who are sent forth with instructions to baptize and help to gather Israel, so that together we may be God’s people and He will be our God. …
My dear brothers and sisters, we have been called at this pivotal time in the history of the earth to teach the world about the beauty and power of the everlasting covenant. Our Heavenly Father trusts us implicitly to do this great work.
Study Question
What might you tell others about the blessings you have received as you have stayed on the covenant path?
Invitations and Promises
If we let God prevail in our lives, [the baptismal] covenant will lead us closer and closer to Him
When you and I also enter that [covenant] path, we have a new way of life. We thereby create a relationship with God that allows Him to bless and change us. The covenant path leads us back to Him. If we let God prevail in our lives, that covenant will lead us closer and closer to Him. All covenants are intended to be binding. They create a relationship with everlasting ties.
Once we make a covenant with God, we have access to a special kind of love and mercy
Once we make a covenant with God, we leave neutral ground forever. God will not abandon His relationship with those who have forged such a bond with Him. In fact, all those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy. In the Hebrew language, that covenantal love is called hesed (חֶסֶד). …
Because God has hesed for those who have covenanted with Him, He will love them. He will continue to work with them and offer them opportunities to change. He will forgive them when they repent. And should they stray, He will help them find their way back to Him.
Because of our covenant[s] with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us
Once you and I have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him becomes much closer than before our covenant. Now we are bound together. Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us. Each of us has a special place in God’s heart. …
The covenant path is all about our relationship with God—our hesed relationship with Him. When we enter a covenant with God, we have made a covenant with Him who will always keep His word. He will do everything He can, without infringing on our agency, to help us keep ours.
The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power
The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power—power that strengthens us to withstand our trials, temptations, and heartaches better. This power eases our way. Those who live the higher laws of Jesus Christ have access to His higher power. Thus, covenant keepers are entitled to a special kind of rest that comes to them through their covenantal relationship with God.
Those who make sacred covenants and keep them are promised eternal life and exaltation
Those who make sacred covenants and keep them are promised eternal life and exaltation, “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 14:7). Jesus Christ is the guarantor of those covenants. Covenant keepers who love God and allow Him to prevail over all other things in their lives make Him the most powerful influence in their lives.
If you have stepped off the path, I invite you to come back
If you have stepped off the path, may I invite you with all the hope in my heart to please come back. Whatever your concerns, whatever your challenges, there is a place for you in this, the Lord’s Church. You and generations yet unborn will be blessed by your actions now to return to the covenant path.
We plead with everyone to walk the covenant path with us
The Lord has commanded that we spread the gospel and share the covenant. … He wishes for every one of His children to have the opportunity to choose the Savior’s gospel and embark upon the covenant path. God wants to connect all people to the covenant He made anciently with Abraham. …
… There is a huge need to spread the gospel to people on the other side of the veil. God wants everyone, on both sides of the veil, to enjoy the blessings of His covenant. The covenant path is open to all. We plead with everyone to walk that path with us.
Videos
Be a Covenant Keeper
Related Talks and Article
“Children of the Covenant” (April 1995 general conference)
“Covenants” (October 2011 general conference)
“Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives” (April 2017 general conference)
“Come, Follow Me” (April 2019 general conference)
“Hear Him” (April 2020 general conference)
“Overcome the World and Find Rest” (October 2022 general conference)
“The Everlasting Covenant” (Liahona, October 2022)