Lessons on the Book of Mormon 2020
Lesson No. Ten
Enduring to the End on the Covenant Path
The Message of Nephi and President Russell M. Nelson
Eternal life comes to those who endure to the end on the strait and narrow covenant path – This is the final testimony of Nephi as recorded in 2 Nephi 31-33, and it is the testimony of President Russell M. Nelson to members in his first address as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The gate to the covenant path is baptism – In his final testimony Nephi taught that the gate to the covenant path is baptism: “For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.
“And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy “Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive” (2 Nephi 31:17-18).
The covenant path ends at the temple – In his first address as President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he said: Now, to each member of the Church I say, keep on the covenant path…As a new Presidency, we want to begin with the end in mind. For this reason, we are speaking to you today from a temple. The end for which each of us strives is to be endowed with power in a house of the Lord, sealed as families, faithful to covenants made in a temple that qualify us for the greatest gift of God – that of eternal life…Your worship in the temple…will bless you with increased personal revelation and peace and will fortify your commitment to stay on the covenant path (“As We Go Forward Together,” Ensign, April 2018, 7).
The necessity of enduring to the end on the covenant path – And after we are on the path Nephi emphasized the necessity of enduring to the end. In doing so he spoke of a remarkable experience where he heard the voice of both the Father and the Son. The Son spoke first:
“After you have repented of your sins, and witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of water, and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue, yea, even with the tongue of angels, and after this should deny me, it would have been better for you that ye had not known me” (2 Nephi 31:14).
And then Nephi “heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved.” Then Nephi added his testimony: “And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved” (2 Nephi 31:15-16).
The necessity of enduring to the end on the covenant path has been central in the teachings of President Russell M. Nelson. In General Conference the year after he was called to the holy Apostleship then Elder Nelson quoted Jesus and taught: “’Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life’ (3 Nephi 15:9). Scriptures tutor us at least twenty-six times to endure to the end to attain eternal life” (Self-Mastery, Ensign, November 1985).
How to endure to the end on the covenant path – Personal worship is what is required to endure to the end on the covenant path. This requires individual commitment and regular effort to keep commandments, to serve, pray, study the scriptures, partake of the sacrament, and attend the temple.
Nephi explained it this way: “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life” (2 Nephi 31:20).