We have the opportunity to enter into a covenant relationship with God in which our lives become a symbol of {His love}.
The covenant path is all about our relationship with God.
A covenant relationship differs from a non-covenant relationship the same way there is a difference between a commercial contract and a retail contract. One is unilateral while the other is bilateral. The unilateral relationship is easier and less powerful than the bilateral relationship.
{One of the meanings of the Hebrew word for atonement is “to cover.”} The Savior and the blessings of His Atonement cover us throughout our lives.
Learn from the teachings of President Nelson about covenants.
When God the Father offered His Only Begotten Son as a sacrifice for us, Jesus Christ Himself became the highest symbol of our Father in Heaven’s undying love for each of us. Jesus Christ became the Lamb of God.
We have the privilege and blessing of being invited into a covenant relationship with God, in which our own lives can become a symbol of that covenant. Covenants create the kind of relationship that allows God to mold and change us over time and lift us to become more like the Savior, drawing us closer and closer to Him and our Father and eventually preparing us to enter Their presence.
Each person on earth is a beloved son or daughter of God. When we choose to be part of a covenant, it enhances and deepens our relationship with Him. President Russell M. Nelson has taught that when we choose to make covenants with God, our relationship with Him can become much closer than it was before our covenant, and it enables Him to bless us with an extra measure of His mercy and love, a covenantal love referred to as hesed in the Hebrew language. The covenant path is all about our relationship with God—our hesed relationship with Him.
Our Father wants a deeper relationship with all His sons and daughters, but it is our choice. As we choose to draw nearer to Him through a covenant relationship, it allows Him to draw nearer to us and more fully bless us.
God sets the conditions and obligations of the covenants we make. When we choose to enter into that relationship, we witness to Him, through the symbolic actions of each covenant, that we are willing to abide by the conditions He has set. Through honoring our covenants, we enable God to pour out the multitude of promised blessings associated with those covenants, including increased power to change and become more like our Savior. Jesus Christ is at the center of all covenants we make, and covenant blessings are made possible because of His atoning sacrifice.
I love that we are invited into a covenant relationship.
God sets the conditions but He doesn’t only set conditions on what we must do, He also sets conditions on how we can call upon His aid in ways that we’re not available without the covenant.
The ordinance of the sacrament also points to the Savior. The bread and water are symbolic of Christ’s flesh and blood shed for us. The gift of His Atonement is symbolically offered to us each week when a priesthood holder, representing the Savior Himself, offers us the bread and water. As we perform the action of eating and drinking the emblems of His flesh and blood, Christ symbolically becomes a part of us. We again put on Christ as we make a new covenant each week.
As part of the temple endowment, we are authorized to wear the garment of the holy priesthood. It is both a sacred obligation and a sacred privilege.
Some people think the garment of the holy priesthood is restrictive but they forget that it is a privilege to be allowed to wear it. The problem isn’t that we can’t remove the garment, the problem is that when we view it lightly as a burden rather than as a privilege we are forgetting what Christ has given us and the promises to us that accompany the covenants we have made. We are also forgetting that while we can easily and repeatedly put on and take off those garments we cannot put on our take off the transformation to who we are that is meant to be the result of those covenants. The thing that brings us closer to Christ is the transformation that makes us new creatures in Christ. If we are constantly taking a break from the brine of the covenant we will never achieve that transformation.
The garment of the holy priesthood is deeply symbolic and also points to the Savior. When Adam and Eve partook of the fruit and had to leave the Garden of Eden, they were given coats of skins as a covering for them. It is likely that an animal was sacrificed to make those coats of skins—symbolic of the Savior’s own sacrifice for us. Kaphar is the basic Hebrew word for atonement, and one of its meanings is “to cover.” Our temple garment reminds us that the Savior and the blessings of His Atonement cover us throughout our lives. As we put on the garment of the holy priesthood each day, that beautiful symbol becomes a part of us.
Would we want the covering of Christ removed as easily or as often as we remove the garment from ourselves?
I am so grateful for the privilege of wearing the garment of the holy priesthood to remind me that the Savior and the blessings of His infinite Atonement constantly cover me throughout my mortal journey. It also reminds me that as I keep the covenants I have made with God in the house of the Lord, I have symbolically put on Christ, who Himself is an armor of light. He will protect me from evil, give me power and increased capacity, and be my light and guide through the darkness and difficulties of this world.
There is deep and beautiful symbolic meaning in the garment of the holy priesthood and its relationship to Christ. I believe that my willingness to wear the holy garment becomes my symbol to Him. It is my own personal sign to God, not a sign to others.
When we hear admonitions to wear the garment we should evaluate within ourselves whether our pattern of wearing it or not wearing it accurately conveys to the Lord the kind of message we would want to send him regarding our commitment to him.
If you have not yet done so, I invite you to choose a deeper relationship with God by making covenants with Him in the house of the Lord. Study the talks of our prophet (including the beautiful teachings in the footnotes of his talks, which most conference talks have). He has spoken repeatedly about covenants for years and especially since becoming President of the Church. Learn from his teachings about the beautiful blessings and increased power and capacity that can be yours through making and keeping covenants with God.
Through a covenant relationship with God, our own lives can become a living symbol of our commitment to and deep love for our Father in Heaven, our hesed for Him, and our desire to progress and eventually become like our Savior, being prepared to one day enter Their presence. I testify that the great blessings of that covenant relationship are well worth the price. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Leave a Reply