The Gift and Power of Agency

Elder David A. Bednar has said that the principle of agency is one of the least understood among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Seeing that “all have not faith,” we should therefore “seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118) that we may be “edified and rejoice together” (D&C 50:22).

I.                Background

Before we can begin to understand the gift and power of agency, we must first remember that each of us lived with God before we were born (Job 38:4-7; Jer. 1:4-5; D&C 93:29). He is our father and, as children of God, we are his royal offspring.

In the premortal realm, we had free will according to eternal law. It may seem obvious that a righteous and loving father would allow his children to make personal choices without compulsion, but it is important to understand that doing so is both natural to our Heavenly Father and essential to his divine role. God was not simply granted unfathomable power, nor did he obtain it by conquest or by birthright alone; rather, he progressed to it as he learned over time to understand and obey absolute, eternal laws including principles of love, sacrifice, humility, meekness, consecration, and the priesthood requirement to exercise no unrighteous dominion.

At some point in our premortal development, God presented a plan for our continued progress and salvation with moral agency at its core. By our own free will, we would fall. We would experience opposition. We would be separated from Him and unable to return on our own. Our Heavenly Father promised that if we would follow His plan, He would also provide a Savior whose infinite and eternal sacrifice would redeem and exalt us. In other words, He would gift to us the power to choose to return to Him, and even become like Him, even and especially when that goal was and is well beyond our reach. This is the gift of agency.

Lucifer “sought to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:3). When God presented His perfect plan, the question wasn’t “which plan shall it be?” That is, Lucifer didn’t present an alternate plan and he didn’t simply lose an election. The question instead was, “whom shall I send?” Jesus Christ, known premortally as Jehovah, was both willing and able to execute the plan as presented for the salvation and exaltation of the children of God.

Lucifer also volunteered, but his apparent volunteerism was a scheme to “exalt [his own] throne above the stars of God” (Isaiah 14:12-15). He asked for God’s power and promised that, with that power, he would “surely” save all of the children of God (Moses 4:1, D&C 29:36). God knew the intents of Lucifer’s heart and that his mutinous scheme was contrary to eternal law and, therefore, void of the power necessary to save and exalt us. In other words, Lucifer was not able to provide for the agency of mankind but was nonetheless willing to damn the progress of all of God’s children and lie in the presence of God to satisfy his own ambitious lust for power.

Because the children of God enjoy free will, Lucifer’s unfeeling arrogance threatened to undermine God’s plan for the exaltation of His children. He wanted the rewards without the work and power without principle. He was willing, without loyalty, to convince others to break the commandments of God and, in effect, sacrifice their eternal progress so he could get what he wanted for himself.

The scriptures say that one-third of the children of God, each loved perfectly by their eternal parents, knowingly rebelled against God and, through the violation of eternal law, were cast out of His presence to both prevent their complete destruction (D&C 67:12) and preserve the opportunity for you and I to have the gift of agency. In Hebrew symbolism, one-third is often used as a fraction of any proportion—it could as easily be one-tenth or three quarters as one third—but if we take it literally we must understand that incomprehensible billions of our brothers and sisters lost their first estate in premortal rebellion.

As promised in the plan, a world was created for us. Physical bodies for Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden. Now in the flesh, Adam and Eve maintained the free will they enjoyed premortally.

Lucifer, still engaged in a personal war for power, deceived Adam and Eve and led them to transgress the laws of God as he had done to so many others before them. Unlike those Lucifer had previously led astray however, Adam and Eve remained loyal to God. Their transgression was not a rebellion, but a consequence of their imperfect effort to keep the commandments according to the knowledge they had. Eternal law mandated that Adam and Eve be separated from God for their transgression just as those who rebelled in the premortal world were separated from God for theirs; but the humility of Adam and Eve allowed for this experience to benefit their progress rather than damning it (D&C 29:39-41).

As Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, they were taught and given several instructions. They were given more commandments so the Lord could bless them for their obedience and sacrifice. Most of all, they were promised that God would provide a Savior for them, as had been presented in premortal council, so that they could have the agency to return to the presence of God.

II.             Agency is a Principle of Power

The prophet Lehi taught his sons: “Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself… And because [the children of men] are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law… according to the commandments which God hath given.”

“Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh… And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi 2:16, 26-27).

We are not victims of the fall to be pulled in every direction by the things that happen to us. As a college football coach said recently, “none of us are born winners and none of us are born losers. We’re all born choosers” (Nick Saban on ESPN.com, August 25, 2022). Elder Klebingat taught in our most recent General Conference that “God won’t force us to do good, and the devil can’t force us to do evil. Though some may think that mortality is a contest between God and the adversary, a word from the Savior ‘and Satan is silenced and banished. … It is [our] strength that is being tested—not God’s’” (April 2022).

Agency is the power to act for ourselves, but it “is not simply the right to choose; it is the opportunity to choose the right” (Elder Randy Funk, April 2022). God explained to Enoch that he “gave unto [the children of men] their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency; And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father” (Moses 7:32-33).

As we choose to trust in God and keep His commandments, we are given power to take those actions that will lead us to “liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men”. We need no such power to choose “captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil” (2 Nephi 2:27, emphasis added). Though we maintain free will to choose life or death, Elder Bednar has taught that “the gift that comes to us through the Savior’s Atonement is agency. … It is the capacity to act and learn from our own experiences. That is the very essence and purpose of being here in mortality.”

The need for this power shows up in everyday situations. It takes no strength of will to stay in bed on a Sunday morning; only to get up and go to church. It takes no willpower to indulge, only to have virtue. We need no power beyond our own to criticize or be sarcastic or cynical. We are completely capable of discouragement, negativity, doubt and despair. We need the power of the Savior’s Atonement to be patient, grateful, kind, and full of faith and hope. This is the power of agency. This is the power to choose Him by choosing to be like Him.

When we consistently use our agency to choose God, our confidence increases until, as Elder Bednar has taught, “we can ultimately navigate the most difficult circumstances in life knowing that we will never be alone and we will always have his help.” This is the power to overcome all things.

III.           The Role and Meaning of Opposition

Of course, the power to overcome all things is only relevant if there are things to overcome. The Lord taught that, “it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet” (D&C 29:39).

Lehi likewise taught:

And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents… it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other” (2 Nephi 2:15-16).

Some modern researchers believe that human behavior is entirely the result of our genetics, environmental conditioning, birth order, socioeconomic status, early childhood trauma, and countless other “puppet strings” that pull us in one direction or another. The philosophy that all events are determined by some external pulling of the strings is known as determinism.

We give in to a determinist view when we surrender our agency with comments like, “I just couldn’t help myself,” “I was just having a bad day,” or “I just had to do it.” Determinism implies that we are not in control, that we are merely objects being acted upon, absent any spiritual self-reliance, and therefore we cannot be held morally responsible for our actions. We must join the Dark Side—it is our destiny—so resistance to the opposition we face is futile.

Through the gospel lens, we can see an alternative perspective. We can see, as Drs. Jeffrey Thayne and Edwin Gantt have argued, that “meaning is found in the superposition [or comparison] of things as they are against things as they could be. Sweet is only meaningful in contrast with bitter. Life is only meaningful in contrast with death. And love is meaningful only when set against indifference or hate.”

Opposition, in this view, is not a force pushing us toward our inevitable destiny, a string pulling us in some direction, or even a meaningless obstacle to what we really want, but rather an opportunity to be enticed by good or evil and exercise or practice using our agency. With each repetition of this resistance training—each time we exercise our agency by choosing Him—we invite the strength of the Atonement of Jesus Christ into our lives.

Yes, genes and birth order and socioeconomic status do have an impact on our lives; but rather than causing particular choices or outcomes these characteristics “simply serve to tie all the events of our lives together in a meaningful and coherent story.” With God, all things are possible; and with agency, possibility is preserved.

Ironically, in seeking to destroy the agency of man, Lucifer has provided the necessary opposition to make that agency, and our lives, meaningful. 

IV.           Representative Agency

One of the ways we exercise our agency is by choosing to follow our Savior into the waters of baptism. There are three conditions of the baptismal covenant: we must choose to begin to take the name of Christ upon ourselves (something we will do more fully in the temple later on), to always remember Him, and keep the commandments He has given us. We exercise our agency when we accept those conditions. We are then promised that, if we honor the terms of the covenant, we will always have His spirit to be with us.

When we enter into the baptismal covenant and begin to have the name of Christ come upon us, our agency is enlarged. It is no longer individual agency; it is enlarged to become representative agency as the call to represent Christ and his name at all times, in all places, and in all things becomes more important that what you or I may want in a given moment.

I think of this very much in the same way that I think of my responsibility to my employer. In everything I do, I am an agent representing the organization that pays my salary. I have some autonomy to make decisions and to do good, so long as those decisions and actions are consistent with the direction and purpose established by the organization. My work is not about me; it is about doing those things that contribute most to the mission of the organization.

As covenant Christians, we are agents of the Lord. We represent Him and are enlisted in His work to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

He wants us to use our agency to act as He would act, or in other words, to become spiritually self-reliant. “For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward. But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned” (D&C 58:26-29).

Our baptismal covenant includes the keys to having confidence that our actions represent Him. Most of our employers have established policies to give us direction and ensure we act in a manner that represents them well. Similarly, we have covenanted to keep the commandments both for our own benefit and to enhance our ability to represent the Lord as his agents.

Each of us have covenanted to always remember Him. This is essential to our ability to effectively represent Him. Likewise, while all mankind has received the light of Christ, sometimes referred to as our conscience, to provide the knowledge about good and evil that is fundamental to our agency, the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost blesses us and helps us to know, as full-time agents of the Lord, how we should represent the Savior in our words and actions.

Representative agency means that we are dependent upon God and devoted to representing Him at all times and in all places. It also means that we can’t just choose to do whatever we want.

For example, you or I, once we are baptized, no longer have the option to sleep in instead of going to church. We might say, “but I have my agency!” Sleeping in isn’t an exercise of agency because agency is the power to choose God and the duty and responsibility to represent Him—and sleeping in does neither of these.

If we have entered the baptismal covenant, we do not have the option of not paying our tithing. Our agency has been enlarged, we have become agents of the Lord, and what He wants for us has become more important than what we want for ourselves. Choosing to do otherwise isn’t an exercise of agency—we need no power from the Lord to make this choice—but it is a violation of our covenant that, if not corrected, will lead us down the path of selfish enticements, captivity, and spiritual death “according to the captivity and power of the devil” (2 Nephi 2:27).

Taken a step further, we might consider that if we are agents called to represent the Lord, then the priesthood is the authority to do the same. We use the priesthood when we are in the service of others; it is the power to act in His name for the salvation of His children. If we are keeping our covenants to be agents unto the Lord, the priesthood attends all of us in our service to our families, in magnifying the callings for which we have been set apart, and in ministering to one another.

V.              Accountability

Just as determinists argue for the absence of spiritual self-reliance, moral relativism is a popular philosophy that advocates for the absence of absolute truth. Truth, under moral relativism, is merely a social construct and therefore one person’s truth or belief cannot be any better or worse than the so-called “truth” accepted by another person.

What moral relativists are really saying is that there is no sin and that “whatsoever a man [or woman] does is no crime.” They want the rewards without the work and power without principle, so they “[use] their intellectual reservations to cover their [own] behavioral lapses.”

God’s plan for our salvation requires us to put our faith and trust in the Lord and assume accountability for the conditions of our hearts (see Sister Amy Wright, April 2022). It promises that we will reap what we sow.

The prophet Helaman taught: “And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you” (Helaman 14:30-31).

VI.           Conclusion

Eternal law establishes and requires that each of us have free will to choose life or death. Because we, as imperfect and impure as we are, do not have the right or ability to choose life on our own, our perfect and loving Heavenly Father has provided a Savior, Jesus Christ. Through the power of His Atonement, we can receive the gift of agency, which is the power to overcome all things and choose to return to live with God again.

The power of agency grows by degrees as we exercise it. When we enter sacred covenants to follow Him, we commit ourselves to choosing what he would have us do over some of the things we might want to do. That is, we covenant to discipline ourselves and choose God more often so that He can bless us more abundantly as we continue to strive to return to His presence.

King Benjamin warned his people that “if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not” (Mosiah 4:30).

Ultimately, we will also be accountable for our free will: our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. The Savior taught that “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

If we have done the will of the Father, if we have kept our covenants to be His agents, we can lift up our hearts and be glad, for the Lord will be in our midst and He will be our advocate with the Father; and it is his good will to give you the kingdom as He counseled in the beginning (D&C 29:5).