"All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine…" (2 Tim. 3:16). This text most assuredly includes the Old Testament and its many and various types, for the New Testament was not yet in existence. A type has been aptly defined as "A Divinely appointed illustration of some spiritual truth." A better definition would be hard to come by and because of the sameness of meaning of type and symbol, I will use them interchangeably in this writing. Typical teaching permeates the Scriptures. Everywhere we turn in the Bible we are confronted with types and they are there for our profit.

A . First let us look at the Ark of Noah, a vivid type of Christ. 1 Peter 3:20 and 21 is a clear and unmistakable reference to Noah and the Ark passing through the judgmental flood in connection with the atoning death and justifying resurrection of Jesus Christ. The design of the Ark was given to Noah in minute detail by the omniscient Designer and Architect of the universe (Gen. 5:14-16). Now the question is, was the ark sufficient in size to accommodate all who were living on the earth at that time? Surely, this question is answered in the asking.

It was not the divine purpose to save all the antediluvian posterity of Adam in the Ark, but only Noah and his family, and seeing there is no negligible quantity in God, all the space and sufficiency sovereignly vested in the ark for flood survival was fully and gloriously utilized. Noah was "a preacher of righteousness," and while the ark was "a—preparing," Noah preached Christ by symbol and sermon; for to preach righteousness is to preach Christ, for He is the believer’s justifying righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30).

No doubt during this exceeding period of one hundred and twenty years of Ark preparation, Noah warned others as he was warned of God (Heb. 11:7). However, only seven believed his report and they were of his own house (Gen. 7:1). Then God brought judgment upon the world of the ungodly and they perished in the flood (2 Pet. 2:5). The Noachian family is a type of the household of God (Eph. 2:19), and Christ, the antitype of the Ark (Acts 4:12) and Head "over His own house" (Heb. 3:6), has made sufficient room for His family and none else. Christ is the Sovereign Sufficer, and having eternally loved His family, He made room for them and them alone in the storm swept citadel of His grace. The Ark as a type was not given to us in shorthand, but in minute detail, and every detail speaks of Christ.

Atonement sufficiency is anchored in God’s forelove, and Christ loves only those who were given to Him by the Father in the covenant of redemption (Jer. 31:3 ; John 13:1 , 17:6 ; Rom. 8:37). In the redemptive scheme there is no such thing as uncovenanted love, and hence no universal atonement sufficiency.

The Ark was a divine provision made before the waters of judgment fell from heaven, and in construction of the Ark, Noah followed the heavenly specifications with unvarying exactitude. "Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him,’ so did he" (Gen. 6:22). There was not one extra cubic inch in the fullness of the Ark, nor was there any unused or wasted space. The sufficiency of the Ark was according to God’s purpose, and His elective purpose was to save only eight souls from the flood (1 Pet. 3:20).

Likewise, Jesus Christ was provided by God before the foundation of the world to deliver His people from the storm of judgment upon sin (2 Tim. 1:9). Christ’s mission to this earth, as with the Ark, was according in every detail to the need of His people, and not one thing wrought by the atoning death of Christ was extended beyond those for whom He died. The sufficiency and efficiency of Christ’s sacrifice was eternally shut up to the elect of God, and there was no redemptive sufficiency left over. The purpose of atoning sufficiency must be measured by its accomplishments, and it has none beyond "the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand..." (Ps. 95:7). To contend otherwise is to argue for an unsure curse upon the sins of the non-elect, for who can say how long a sovereign sufficiency will remain in protraction? The universal sufficiency theory has the rudiment of universal restoration of mankind in it.

B . The second type we want to consider is that of the Passover Lamb of Exodus 12 . The pure, free, and infinite grace of God provided Israel with the Passover lamb; and in this sacrificial lamb was their redemption and sufficiency. However, let it be clearly understood that the taking of the lamb from the flock, the slaying of it, and the roasting of it with fire was not sufficient to save Israel from the imminent judgment upon Egypt. The blood must be sprinkled upon the posts and lintel of the door of each Israelitish home. God emphatically declared that "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" (Ex. 12:13). This He said to Israel, and not to Egypt.

It is the common concurrence that Israel in slavery to Egypt is a type of God’s elect in their pre-regenerate state, in which state they "walked according to the course of this world" (Eph. 2:2), or like ancient Israel in bondage, walked according to the course of Egypt. It is also uniformly held by students of the Scriptures, that Egypt is a type of this present evil world, a tyrant to whom man in his native state pays perfect allegiance. However, the powerful tyranny exercised by the world over man does not in any degree lessen his responsibility to denounce the world and come out of it.

Christ said of all who have owned His Lordship over them, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:16). There is no spiritual commonality between the regenerate person and the world, and Divine sufficiency is certainly spiritual. Redemptive sufficiency is a product of God’s love and was purchased by Christ’s sacrificial blood. In view of this glorious truth, I ask, Does God’s atoning sufficiency extend beyond His love? Are they not both co-extensive, retrospectively and prospectively, and have as their objects the same number of people, i.e., the elect of God?

The Apostle Paul said, speaking of the antitype of Israel’s Passover lamb, "…For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (I Cor. 5:7). To universalize the pronoun "us" in this text and make it apply in any sense to the reprobate world is to bedim the glory of the atonement. A sufficiency, the generality of which is such that it makes no distinction whatsoever between the people of God and those of the devil, is far too general for the Scriptures. God does not deal with the non-elect world through sufficient grace, but with sufficient and unadulterated justice, which provides no measure of atoning sufficiency, but eternal and merited suffering.

God’s counsel is eternal and so are all His decrees. Thus, the decree of unpardonableness against the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit is eternal (Matthew 12:31-32). Does it not follow then, seeing that contradictory decrees cannot emanate from God, that He would not decree an atoning sufficiency for a sin that He decreed never to forgive? Pharaoh is an unmistakable type of Satan. He was bent on the elimination of Moses, a type of Christ, and on the annihilation of Israel, a type of God’s elect. His reprobation was glaringly manifest, and it was God’s eternal intention to drown him in the Red Sea (Rom. 9:17); as it is God’s purpose to cast Satan, the antitype of Pharaoh, into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). In view of this, I ask, Did the atoning sufficiency of Israel’s Lamb extend unto Pharaoh?

"…The Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel" (Ex. 11:7). This "difference" which distinguished Israel from Egypt was the Passover lamb. God did not give Egypt a Passover lamb, and consequently, no atonement sufficiency was provided for Egypt. When atoning blood is denied a people, they are left to themselves, and people left to themselves have never been objects of atonement sufficiency. Sufficiency is a vital part of God’s redemptive purpose for His people, and that purpose and sufficiency corresponds precisely with the number of names eternally registered in the Lamb’s book of life.

Knowledge of the importance and purpose of the lamb was limited to Israel. Sprinkling of the blood of the lamb was limited to Israel. The promise of God, wherein He said, "When I see the blood I will pass over you," was limited to Israel. All redemptive or atoning benefits, including sufficiency, was limited to Israel. Conversely, the death curse of the firstborn was visited upon the household of Pharaoh and all the land of Egypt (Ex. 12:29). God’s infinite holiness and inflexible justice sees the non-elect as unatoned for sinners, and has provided for them smiting rather than sufficiency. The only thing God ever does with sin is smite it, and God’s atoning Lamb was not smitten with as much as one stripe for any beyond the limits of His shed blood.

Christ, the antitype of Israel’s Passover lamb and antitype of Israel’s High Priest (Heb. 9:7), having obtained eternal redemption for His people (Heb. 9:11-12), entered into the tabernacle not made with hands. In the heavenly tabernacle behind the veil, the blood of Christ was sprinkled and accepted to the full satisfaction of the Father for the sins of His covenant children (Heb. 6:19, 10:24, 13:20). Therefore, the guilt of God’s elect is forever removed from heaven’s court docket and the sovereign verdict now reads, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Heb. 10:17).

Peter, speaking of the glorious and exclusive offering of the blood of Christ within the veil of heaven’s tabernacle, says "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace unto you , and peace be multiplied" (1 Pet. 1:2). "Grace" and "peace" are blessings purchased for the elect by the shed and sprinkled blood of Christ, and every other purchase made by the vicarious sufferings of Christ shall be realized by the elect of God, and by them only; for His intercession on the cross was eternally and sovereignly restricted to them. "…the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep" (John 10:11). In no sense did He die for the goats.

Every blessing the redeemed of God shall ever experience in time and eternity was procured for them by the sacrificial blood of Christ. On the other hand, all the suffering and grief which the non-elect shall ever know, is owing to their infinite hatred of the blood of God’s Lamb (Heb. 10:29), and not to an ill-supposed sufficiency.

What is typically true of the lamb of Exodus 12 is equally true of all the God ordained animal sacrifices of the Old Testament, for they all were typical of the all-concluding sacrifice which God would make upon Calvary. The institution of animal sacrifices must reach its terminus, for the offended and infinite justice of God could never be satisfied with the blood of a beast as the means of expiation for the sins of utterly depraved men. Every sin is an infinite insult to the honor and holiness of God, and when the offense is infinite, so must the sacrifice be by which the sin is expiated. Hence, the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ. Christ "…appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:26).

"For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Heb. 10:14). "Sanctified", i.e., set apart by the covenant of eternal redemption. The saints’ perfection is not of personal character, but of legal standing before the bar of God’s inflexible and just law. The saints’ perfection has not to do with personal righteousness, but with imputed righteousness which was appropriated for them in the covenant of eternal and unconditional election, and merited not by them, but by the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-20).

The justification or declaration of the saints’ legal righteousness is eternally anchored in the sovereign, holy, and active love of God. The love of God is infinite, but exclusive. It does not reach all mankind, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Thus it is seen that Christ is God’s beloved Son, and singular channel of His blessings. All the blessings of the atonement come to the elect of God through Christ, the Mediator of the covenant of grace, and no good thing shall be withheld from them for whom it was purchased.

Most surely, atonement sufficiency is infinitely good, and no good thing wrought by the propitiation of Christ shall ever be voided. Therefore, atonement sufficiency is limited to the elect, and they are made more than conquerors through Him that loved them (Rom. 8:37). All that was purchased by the atoning blood of Christ will be infallibly applied to all those for whom the purchase was made. To say otherwise is to change God with vanity, and the universal sufficiency view of the atonement gives credence to this baseless allegation. BEWARE!

The Passover Lamb of Exodus 12 is not a picture of universal sufficiency, but of particular protection. Atonement sufficiency equals deliverance from the curse. Christ did not die to provide a sufficiency that would go eternally wanting for a people to protect, but His shed blood has provided a covering for the people of God, and Paul says: "Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered" (Rom. 4:7). It irrevocably follows: all whose sins are not covered, Calvary’s atonement has no value for them.