How does God punish people today?

Hebrews 12:11God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

We often fail to distinguish between just punishment and discipline. Just punishment is applied for actions deliberately done despite warnings about the painful consequences. Just punishment ensures that the consequences for the sin are applied. Discipline, which sometimes uses the same means as punishment (not always), seeks to correct, direct, and produce a desired change of behavior or attitude. God disciplines us as a loving Father, by both consequences and rebuke. His desire is always to bring us back to him, not to humiliate or hurt us. Without the discipline and the punishment that goes along with it, people would follow their own sinful desires with abandon.

Romans 1:18-32God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. . . . That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires.

God allows sinners to experience the consequences of their own behavior, especially when their sin is intentional and deliberate. If he simply warned without consequences, he would neither be loving nor keep his word to us.