The lesson opens with Jesus’ words that eternal life is knowing the only true God, and then lays out the attributes of God in two groups. Some are incommunicable, belonging to God alone: omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, immutability, self-existence, eternity and incomprehensibility. Others are communicable, traits He shares with people in a limited way: love and mercy, holiness, wisdom, justice and righteousness, faithfulness, kindness, goodness and patience.
The study then traces the image of God through history. Man was created in God’s image to reflect His character and rule under Him, but after the fall the image was corrupted and passed on to a sinful race. Christ is God’s perfect image, and in Him believers are being conformed to that image again. God is at work in them to will and to work, while they are responsible to put on the new self and imitate God as beloved children.