NAME, IMAGE, LIKENESS

NIL has been around much longer than its current usage in the world of college sports.

Name

The goal of those building the Tower of Babel was “to make a name for ” themselves (Genesis 11:4). The result: God confused those builders and chaos ensued—much like the state of college sports today.

God named himself “I am” (Exodus 3:14). That He used the verb-to-be as His name grammatically implied His absolute and continuous state of being. A name like that should command top NIL dollars for use on a jersey.

Image and Likeness

When creating man, God said “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26, 9:6). God did not make man physically similar to Himself but did make him spiritually similar. This is because God is spirit (John 4:24) and His spirit is in man. “It is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding” (Job 32:8).

With this God-like spirit, man can know God and right from wrong. One wrong is to worship “an idol or an image of any shape” (Deuteronomy 4:16). Worshiped idols come in many forms: money, athletes, sports itself, if anyone of these gains too much of our devotion. 

Unlike today’s NIL, its biblical version has stood the test of time since creation. This version leads us to God’s orderly truth rather than chaos. And good news: God’s NIL is priceless but free of charge, if used as He intended.