For Whom Did Christ Do His Cross Work? Not only does the evangelical universalist relax the supernaturalistic principle that is the bedrock of Christian theism, but to be consistent he must also reject the substitutionary character of Christ’s atoning death in favor of what he terms the governmental theory of the atonement.26 This necessarily follows from his recognition that if all that God did looking to the salvation of men he did for all men alike, and if Christ substitutionally atoned for