31. Jesus' death revealed that God does not execute those who choose to separate themselves from the Source of Life.
The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. {John 10:17-18}
Even before He went to the cross to offer the supreme demonstration of the Death that comes as a result of separating oneself from the Source of Life, Jesus spoke very clearly about how and why He was going to Die. He said that He was going to freely and deliberately lay down His life. He said that nobody—and that means nobody, including His Father—would take it from Him, but that He was laying it down of His own accord.
Jesus’ Death revealed that God has no hand in Death; He has no part to play in the eternal extinction that comes as a result of separating from the Source of Life. Just as Jesus laid down His life of His own accord, so all of God’s unrepentant children will lay down their lives of their own accord. Nobody will take their lives from them, but they will lay them down.
Every person has the same choice Jesus did—will we remain connected to the Source, or will we sever our connection? The difference is that we choose to sever our connection by persisting in a rebellious attitude against God, whereas Jesus chose to sever His connection for the purposes of demonstrating Death, even though He’d never cherished a rebellious attitude against God.
And just as every person has the same choice as Jesus did, every person who chooses to sever his connection with God will receive the same treatment Jesus did. They will be given up and let go, handed over to the Sin they have chosen in order to receive their wages. God will not execute them, torture them, or hurt them in any way, just as He did none of those things to Jesus. They will Die, but it will not be at the hands of their loving, Heavenly Father.
If you want to dig deeper—
Ezekiel 18:31-32
Matthew 26:36-39
Matthew 27:46, 50
Luke 22:43-44
Romans 1:18-20, 28
Romans 8:32