Essay

What Temple Ordinances Do

Maybe the temple still feels a little mysterious to you. You may believe it is important and still wonder, What do these ordinances actually do? What will I learn in the temple?

Those are sincere questions. The place to begin is with Jesus Christ. Temple ordinances do not replace His grace or earn His love. They are sacred acts He has established through priesthood authority in which we enter covenants with God and receive blessings made possible through Christ’s Atonement. Through temple covenants, God teaches you how to live, gives you greater access to the Savior’s power, and prepares you to return to His presence. Through the sealing power, He also makes it possible for family relationships to continue eternally.

An ordinance is a sacred act performed by God’s authority. A covenant is a sacred relationship with God established through those ordinances: you make promises to Him, and He promises blessings as you faithfully follow Jesus Christ. Understanding that distinction helps the temple make much more sense. You are not simply completing religious requirements. You are entering a deeper covenant relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Jesus Gave His Church Power to Bind on Earth and in Heaven

One of the clearest explanations begins with a conversation Jesus had with His Apostles. Near Caesarea Philippi, the Savior asked them who they believed He was. Peter testified, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus then promised Peter the “keys of the kingdom of heaven” and explained what those keys could do: “whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven” (Matthew 16:13–19).

Jesus was teaching that heaven recognizes ordinances performed through authority He gives. That matters because an eternal relationship requires more than sincere human intention. If something is to endure beyond death, it must be established through authority that reaches beyond mortality.

That promised authority became especially important in the Restoration. In 1836, after the Kirtland Temple had been dedicated, Elijah appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and declared that “the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands” (Doctrine and Covenants 110:13–16). His coming fulfilled Malachi’s ancient prophecy that the hearts of children and fathers would be turned toward one another.

This is the sealing power. It is why a temple sealing is different from simply promising someone that you will love them forever. God has restored authority through which a man and woman can enter an eternal marriage covenant and generations of His children can be joined together.

God’s Plan Has Always Been About More Than Getting Individuals to Heaven

The Family: A Proclamation to the World gives one of the clearest explanations of why temples matter: “Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.”

Notice both parts of that sentence. God wants you to return to Him, and His plan also includes eternal family relationships.

You lived before this life as a son or daughter of Heavenly Parents. You came to mortality to receive a body, exercise agency, form covenant relationships, learn to follow Jesus Christ, repent, and gradually become more like God. Marriage between a man and woman, children, motherhood, fatherhood, and family relationships belong within that larger eternal purpose.

Temple ordinances therefore are not an unrelated set of requirements placed at the end of the gospel. They are part of how Heavenly Father prepares His children for the kind of life He wants to give them.

Leah Learned That Temple Covenants Were About Who She Was Becoming

After returning from her mission, Latter-day Saint young adult Leah Flores of the Philippines found herself caught up in ordinary life. She described feeling spiritually distracted and not as close to Jesus Christ as she wanted to be.

Then she returned to the temple.

Leah said that as she sat there, she felt peace and clarity she had been missing. Temple worship reminded her of God’s love and of spiritual experiences she had previously had with Him. She later explained that regular temple attendance deepened her conversion because it reminds her “who I am and who I am becoming.” She came to understand that conversion was not simply something that had happened earlier in her life; following Jesus Christ was a choice she needed to keep making.

You can watch Leah share her experience in the May 2026 Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults.

Leah’s experience helps explain something important about temple ordinances. Covenants are not only about what happens after death. They are meant to shape your relationship with Christ now. As you remember and keep them, they influence your priorities, your choices, your relationships, and the person you are becoming.

Why the Sealing Power Is an Expression of God’s Love

Elder D. Todd Christofferson explained this beautifully in “The Sealing Power”. He described sealing power as the authority that makes priesthood ordinances “binding both on earth and in heaven.” He then called that power “a perfect manifestation of the justice, mercy, and love of God.”

Why love?

Because God has not limited these blessings to people who happened to hear the gospel and reach a temple during mortality. Temple ordinances can be performed vicariously for those who have died, while each person retains the agency to accept or reject what has been done on his or her behalf. Elder Christofferson explained that this makes individual salvation and family exaltation available to God’s children across generations and throughout human history.

So when you wonder, If God loves everyone, why would He require ordinances? remember that His love is part of the reason He has provided them so universally. He does not force anyone into a covenant relationship with Him, but He makes that relationship available to everyone.

Why Can’t Loving God Sincerely Be Enough?

It is understandable to wonder why a formal ordinance should matter. Our culture often treats sincerity as the most important part of spirituality: If I love God and He knows my heart, why should a ceremony matter?

There is something true in that instinct. God certainly cares about your heart, and an ordinance performed without faith or followed by a life of deliberate covenant breaking does not magically transform someone.

But Jesus never taught that inward faith makes outward covenant action unnecessary. He was baptized. He instituted the sacrament. He authorized Apostles. He commanded His disciples to baptize others. Throughout scripture, God repeatedly invites His children to express faith through covenants and ordinances.

The adversary can take the good desire for an authentic relationship with God and gradually persuade us that authority, covenants, commandments, and ordinances are unnecessary. He can also use unfamiliarity with the temple to encourage the conclusion that if something does not immediately make sense to us, it must not matter very much.

God’s pattern teaches something richer. Your heart matters, and so does what you choose to do with your agency. Covenants allow you to deliberately place your life in the hands of Jesus Christ and then learn to live according to that relationship.

Research Helps Us See Why Sacred Practices Can Shape a Life

Social science cannot tell us whether temple ordinances have eternal power. Revelation answers that question. But research can help us understand why repeated sacred practices can become so influential in everyday life.

BYU researchers Rachel Loser, E. Jeffrey Hill, Shirley Klein, and David Dollahite interviewed members of 67 highly religious Latter-day Saint families about religious rituals in their homes. Participants described benefits including greater spiritual growth, more focus and direction, improved family unity and communication, and greater kindness within family relationships.

The study was about family religious practices rather than temple ordinances, so it does not establish anything about sealing power. It does illustrate something useful: repeated sacred actions can shape people differently than beliefs that remain only ideas. Temple covenants work their way into ordinary discipleship as you remember them, worship, repent, make decisions, and try to become more like Jesus Christ.

What If My Family Situation Does Not Look Like the Eternal Ideal?

For some people, this doctrine raises another question. What if you are single and do not know when you will marry? What if you are divorced, widowed, unable to have children, or part of a family with relationships that are deeply imperfect? What if you want temple marriage but circumstances outside your control have made that impossible so far?

Elder Christofferson acknowledged directly that eternal marriage and family life are not presently possible for everyone. He then reaffirmed President M. Russell Ballard’s teaching that every person who faithfully keeps gospel covenants will have the opportunity for exaltation.

Your present circumstances do not cancel God’s promises. You can live your covenants now, receive Christ’s strength now, become more like Him now, and trust Him with blessings whose timing you cannot yet see. The doctrine of eternal families is meant to reveal what Heavenly Father is preparing His children to receive, not to tell faithful people that circumstances they did not choose have disqualified them from His plan.

A Few Questions Worth Thinking About

• When I think about temple ordinances, have I been viewing them mostly as requirements to complete, or as covenants Christ wants me to learn how to live?
• What part of temple worship—covenants, priesthood authority, sealing, proxy ordinances, or the endowment—do I understand least right now?
• How might my everyday choices change if I remembered that temple covenants are helping me become someone prepared to live eternally with God and build eternal family relationships?

What Can You Do This Week?

Start by studying Matthew 16:13–19 and Doctrine and Covenants 110:13–16 together. Ask Heavenly Father to help you understand why Jesus Christ gives priesthood keys and why being “bound in heaven” matters.

If you are preparing to receive your endowment, spend some time with the Church’s study guide on the endowment and sealing ordinances. It explains that the endowment teaches God’s plan, centers on Jesus Christ, and gives covenant keepers increased access to His power. Talk with your bishop, parents, or a trusted endowed member about the questions you still have.

If you are already endowed, return to the temple with one question rather than expecting yourself to understand everything at once. Listen carefully for what the ordinances teach you about Jesus Christ, your relationship with Heavenly Father, your mortal purpose, and the person you are becoming. You might also find one ancestor whose ordinance work needs to be completed so that the doctrine of sealing becomes connected to someone in your own family.

Temple ordinances matter because Jesus Christ has established them as part of His way of bringing Heavenly Father’s children home. Through His Atonement, covenant keeping can change you, priesthood ordinances can have eternal validity, and family relationships can extend beyond death. You do not need to understand the temple perfectly before you can begin learning from it. As you worship there and faithfully live the covenants you make, Jesus Christ can help you become increasingly prepared for the eternal life those ordinances point toward.