The Greatest NIL Deal Ever

In June 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA was "not legally allowed to limit any education-related payments to students." The payments cannot be tied to performance, like my deal I negotiated with my parents in little league baseball.. $1 per single, $2 per double, $3 per triple, $4 for a home run. 12 year old Tyler cashed in on that $4 mark twice, I was pretty impressive. The payments cannot also not be to attend a certain college. "Here's 8 million dollars if you attend the University of Tennessee", for example. However, who really reads the fine print, am I right?

These "Name, Image, Likeness" deals, or NIL deals, as they are known, have made the world of college football recruitment a wild thing to watch, as these high school kids are given millions of dollars to shout out the local car dealer on a TV spot, tweet about the delicious Pal's burger (if you know you know), or rock the latest Nike shoes.

I was thinking about how I would certainly have signed an NIL deal in little league if anyone had come asking, then I realized I actually did accept an NIL deal in little league. When I was 11 years old, I accepted the greatest NIL deal ever. It had nothing to do with my performance, and absolutely nothing to do with where I would continue my education after my time with Bill Gatton Honda Braves was complete. It was the most expensive deal ever afforded anyone and I am here to see if anyone else wants to accept, because enrollment is still open and we are actively looking for brand ambassadors.

Lets flesh it out

Image and likeness...

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

We are all made in the image of God, made in His likeness, carrying the name of the Creator. It goes to reason then that if we were indeed made, not evolved from some primordial puddle, then there was design, intent, and purpose in our making. God indeed did have a purpose in mind when He made us in His image. Colossians 1:16 says we were made "for Him" and Revelation 4:11 says we created for "His pleasure". God wants a relationship with us, thats why He created you with free will to choose that relationship, or choose not to have it. To accept that relationship invitation is to have faith in God's existence, His rescuing you from your sin nature, and His purposes for your life. Faith in God is how we please God according to the author of Hebrews - "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God  must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6). The original NIL deal is on the table, God is asking you to sign it in faith to please Him, but also come into a relationship with Him so you can fulfill the purpose for which you were made in His image and likeness.

Your current options...

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Before you reject this NIL deal outright let's look at your resumé and see what God sees in you..

- Dead in your trespasses and sins

- A lifestyle in accordance with the world & Satan.

- The love child of disobedience and wrath

- Living in the lusts of our flesh

- Indulging in the desires of the flesh and mind

- Darkened in your understanding (Ephesians 4:17-18)

- Separated from the life of God because of ignorance (Ephesians 4:17-18)

- Hardened of heart (Ephesians 4:17-18)

- Having your minds blinded to the light of the gospel by Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4)

You really have everything God is looking for, a perfect candidate for his ultimate NIL deal.

Paul summarizes the type of person God sends NIL offers to in Romans 8:7-8. The type of person God invites are the ones with a mind set on the flesh, hostile towards Him, unable to follow His law, and unable to please Him. When you start reading through the New Testament you start seeing that God is reaching out to us all when we are in a condition that is antithetical to why He made us in the first place. Just as with NIL deals in the NCAA, I am super thankful that God's ultimate NIL deal to us also has nothing to do with my performance. Lets look at some examples of the person's condition **when** God extends the invitation of relationship.

- Romans 5:6 - While we were still helpless..

- Romans 5:8 - while we were yet sinners..

- Romand 5:10 - While we were enemies..

- Ephesians 2:5 - when we were dead in our transgressions..

God is reaching out to the spiritually dead, those living for themselves, living in opposition to Him, separated from Him, blinded to his truths and He is laying it all on the table begging them to not stay lost in the world, but to come home. He emptied the treasuries of Heaven to pay your entry fee...

Its a very one sided offer...

In Luke 15, Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son. There is a father, who has two sons. The younger son demands his father gives him his inheritance money before his father dies and he goes off and squanders it on prostitutes. The older son stays at his fathers home and follows the rules. In the end of the parable, the younger son returns home and the father is elated and throws a huge feast, but the older son doesn't come to the feast because he is upset that he followed all the rules but feels slighted because the father was celebrating the son who took the money and squandered it and then came crawling back home, but as the son who followed his father's rules, he was not rewarded.

Jesus portrays the two sons as the two ways people seek happiness - moral conformity and self-discovery. Follow all the rules, or break all the rules. The first way is saying "I will be my own savior" and the second way is saying "there is no need for a savior". You think you can be good enough to meet the standards of Heaven, or you think none of it matters because there is no Heaven. Jesus is showing them that the man who breaks all the rules can be just as spiritually lost as the man who keeps them all.

The word prodigal is defined as "Recklessly extravagant, having spent everything". I had always seen this parable, as the son was recklessly extravagant, he spent everything. While that is accurate, Tim Keller presented me with a different take on things in his book "The Prodigal God".

Keller notes that the application of the parable is found in the Father's response to the lost son's return. The father runs to him when his son is still a far way off and puts HIS robe on his son. The father is showing his son that he owes the father nothing, the father will cover the debts the son owes. The father killed his fattened calf and threw a feast. The son learns that not only is there ample food to spare, there is ample grace to spare. The parallels to our relationship with God, and His extravagant offer to pay our sin debt and restore our right relationship in His family are jumping off the pages.

The forgiveness afforded to the wayward son was free to the son, but it was extremely costly to the father. Extravagantly so. The grace of God is free to us all, but God spent everything to extend it to us:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)

When we understand how serious God views sin, and that to save us from it, he paid an infinite cost, our lives are profoundly reshaped.

What are you waiting for?

The deal is on the table. The offer is to restore the broken relationship between you and the One who made you in His image and likeness. The One whose name you are being asked to represent.

For the grace of God has appeared **that offers salvation to all people**. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,(Titus 2:11-13)

Remember back to the beginning of this article? Paul reminds the church at Ephesus that it is "by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God". The grace that has appeared, or the most extravagant NIL deal ever offered, in my loosely concocted analogy, is available to all. It's free. It's the one thing you need to accept to get you out of the dead, blind, heart hardened condition you are in! A day is coming soon when the deal will no longer be available, and those that have accepted it will be ushered into eternity with the Creator, and those who don't accept it, will be ushered into eternity without Him.

For those of us that have accepted the free gift of grace, it's a wild new existence. Understanding the inescapable destiny we had, and what Jesus paid to rescue us from it, reframes our entire understanding and day to day life. I love how Paul describes it in Romans 5 -

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.  (Romans 5:1-2)

We put our faith in Jesus, and are justified, or made right, at peace, with God who was demanding payment for our sins. Our faith introduces us to "this grace in which we now stand". I love the thought of being introduced to grace. Being introduced to this new way of living, as it was originally intended. The image I have in my mind reading that verse, is like you are tossed out of your kayak in a raging river of white cap rapids and you are just free fall tumbling through the water with no clue which way is up or down. You have moments to figure it out or its lights out. You can’t even get your bearings because you can’t see in the torrent, and then you feel someone grab you by the back of your shirt and snatch you out and slam you feet down onto dry ground and you are standing there panting, wiping water off your eyes, looking around trying to figure out what happened. You look down at your feet and realize you are now back on a boat, but this time the boat is not rocking like your kayak was. Now the boat is floating smoothly down these rapids. The water isn't any calmer, but the ride sure is.

Our faith introduces us to this grace in which we stand. Its a grace that saves us, a grace that was extended to us when we didn’t even know we needed it, and a grace that requires we accept it in faith. The cost of following Christ does not compare to the price He paid to free us to do so.

As the apostle Paul entreated the church at Corinth - I leave you with the same charge -

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Accept the greatest NIL deal that ever existed before its too late.