I don’t remember when I first heard the term “covenant path,” but I do remember the mental image that the phrase gave me. I pictured a path with a start and finish line. Every ordinance I performed and covenant I made seemed like a mile marker along the path, showing that I was getting closer to the finish line and closer to Christ.
But I’ve come to learn that my visual was dangerously wrong.
Why the Path Isn’t Ultimately What Leads Us to Christ
The danger of picturing Christ at the finish line, as if He were the goal at the end of the covenant path, is that it makes it seem like we’re progressing on the covenant path alone—that we have to pass every milestone and make every covenant before we can finally reach Him.
But the truth is that the moment we make our first covenant and step onto the covenant path, we are already with Jesus. He is on the path, traveling with us, guiding us, and giving us the strength to keep pressing forward.
The covenant path doesn’t ultimately lead us to Jesus. It’s Jesus who leads us along the covenant path.
2 Types of Closeness
One of the reasons I pictured the covenant path incorrectly is because I had misinterpreted what Church leaders meant when they taught that “every covenant with God is an opportunity to draw closer to Him” and that “multiple covenants draw us closer to Christ.” I assumed that being closer to Christ after making a covenant meant that before the covenant, I was somehow farther from Him, needing to close that gap.
But there are two types of closeness. The first is closeness in proximity or presence. That’s the closeness that doesn’t change as we progress with Christ along the covenant path. From the moment we bind ourselves to Him through our baptismal covenants, Christ is, as the psalmist said, “a very present help” (Psalm 46:1).
The second type of closeness is in terms of our relationship. The closer a relationship is, the greater the depth of feeling each party has for the other. This is the closeness I believe that Church leaders are referring to when discussing our covenants—the kind of closeness that “allows the love of the Savior to sink more deeply into our heart,” as Elder Neil L. Andersen said.
Just as a husband and wife love each other on their wedding day but are even more in love with each other after a lifetime spent serving each other as they journeyed through mortality together, however close we feel to Christ when we’re baptized, however much love we feel for Him and from Him, that closeness and depth of relationship can only increase as we make more covenants with Him, binding ourselves to Him over and over again.
Covenant Path and Covenant Relationship
I have noticed speakers in general conference refer not only to the “covenant path” but also to our “covenant relationship” with Christ. I love the clarity this second phrase brings to the first. As President Russell M. Nelson taught, “The covenant path is all about our relationship with God.”
Another reason I love the phrase “covenant relationship” is because when I looked up the root of the word “relationship,” I expected to see that it simply meant “to be related” or “to be connected.” But the core of the word comes from the Latin relatio, which actually means “a bringing back” or “restoring.”
That definition suggests a profoundly beautiful truth. Our covenant relationship isn’t simply about being connected or bound to Christ. It’s about Christ, through the power of His Atonement, bringing us back to our heavenly parents so that our bodies, our promised blessings, and all of love’s purest joys can be restored.
This gift of restoration is what really awaits us at the finish line. And thanks to Christ and His enabling Atonement, if we keep walking with Him along the covenant path, relying on His grace, and returning to Him whenever we stray, it’s a finish line we’ve been promised we’ll reach.
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