H.E. Metropolitan Serapion answers question about death & punishment, from Series of Lectures on the Incarnation, at St. Maurice Coptic Orthodox Church
“There is a punishment. If you want to say someone who sins separates himself from God, just as a student fails because he didn’t study [that’s fine], but there is sentence pronounced upon him. There is a sentence of death pronounced upon him “the day you eat of this tree you will die.” But there is a result. What is the result? It is not that God wants to kill him; he separated himself from God. Just as in the end God will say to some “Depart from me you cursed.” Did He force them to depart , or did they depart of their own will? If someone is far from God and doesn’t believe in Him, how will he enter the Kingdom? How will he be with God, if he doesn’t know God? Here, will God punish him or will he punish himself? Both.” – H.E Metropolitan Serapion