I don't mean pay for sins in such a way as they escape. I mean pay for sins in a way a murderer pays for a crime with a life sentence.
"He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might." II Thess 1:8-9
Scripture treats Gehenna as the punishment/sentence itself, which could be explained in English as 'paying for the crime.' (Mk 9:43-47, Matt 10:48, Matt 23:23, Lk 12:5, Matt 5:22, Jn 5:29.
Those who know God/obey the gospel are exempt from this penalty since they have life given by Christ and Christ's imputed righteousness. Jesus Himself never paid the penalty of eternal destruction or suffered the fires of Gehenna.
Rather, He experienced physical suffering for us all and physically died that we might live through Him.
Is 53 prophetically describes this:
"...He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
b
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied; (something no one condemned to hell will ever have)
by his knowledge
f my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors..."