Particularly since the Bible uses more than one metaphor for the atonement.
YES!
The Eastern Orthodox have always had a more balanced view which see this as only one of a number of metaphors for the atonement. It is only in western medieval Christianity did this one metaphor become so strongly emphasized like it was to be taken literally.
The point of a metaphor is to reveal some truth about what it explains. But at some point the metaphor fails when taken too far. This is the nature of metaphors.
So what is the truth of this judicial metaphor?
- Jesus certainly did give his life for our salvation.
- We certainly need to understand that our sin has a terrible price.
- Justice is involved because justice is about facing the reality that our action have consequences. (cheap forgiveness can sometimes do more harm than good)
- Often it takes the death of an innocent for us to understand how destructive our sins are and to enable us to find the will to repent of them.
And where does this judicial metaphor fail if taken too far?
- No sane system of justice actually allows the innocent to pay for the crimes of the guilty.
- God needs no special song and dance or magic spell in order to forgive people as is demonstrated quite often in the Bible, especially by Jesus Himself.
- Human sacrifice and blood sacrifices in general don’t have any power to accomplish anything.
- If treated like a magical spell then it starts to sound like some sort of black blood magic which is more suited to demonic necromancy than to anything taught by Jesus.
Perhaps someone can add more items to these two lists. …or do the same for some of the other metaphors.