Whoever keeps my word will never see death. Perhaps it was not such a good idea for Jesus to engage the Jews on some of the topics such as him being the light of the world, the bread of life, or him having existed before Abraham. For even as Jesus continued to engage them on these topics, they continued to misunderstand him and even label him as crazy. The Jews were bound to misunderstand Jesus because they were stuck in their “worldly’ thinking and stubbornness (cf. John 8:23-24). They were having a difficult time understanding the message of Jesus because they were yet to open themselves to the person that he was. Jesus had reminded them that it was their stubbornness that would lead to their death and utter destruction. For it was due to their stubbornness that they had turned their backs on the commands of God. It was because of their stubbornness that they ended up replacing the commandments of God with human traditions (cf. Mark 7:8). It was because of their stubbornness that they continued to stray from God in order to follow their own designs. And anyone who strays from, and separates the self from God, is dead. 
Jesus has come to show us the way back to God so that we can live once more. He does this by teaching us how to faithfully live the commandments of God. For it is by living the commandments of God that we grow closer to God and can rightly claim knowledge of God. The Jews whom Jesus was addressing claimed knowledge of God but their actions showed a people whose hearts were far from God (cf. Matthew 15:8 [Isaiah 29:13; Ezekiel 33:31]). Keeping the word of Jesus means staying close to God since one who keeps the word of Jesus lives in God and God in him/her (cf. I John 4:16).