Answer:
Jesus never says the words, "I am God." However, in talking about his identity, he makes the claim to being God in even more powerful ways. Some wonder if the disciples – specifically Paul – didn’t deify Jesus after his death and did so in contradiction to Jesus own self understanding. So lets first turn to what’s recorded from Jesus himself to see how he viewed himself.
First, he exercises divine prerogatives which is a powerful claim to divinity. That is, he does only what God can and should do. For example, He forgives sin unilaterally. (Mark 2). He doesn't need to say "I'm God" because he does what everyone knows is only God's right to do. Imagine me running the 100 yard dash in under 10 seconds and then pronouncing, "I am fast!" We’d respond, “Redundant! – we know that by what you just did.” In fact, by DOING it, he showed them rather than tell them, which as we all know is a much more effective way of communicating a claim. So in Mark 2 you have one of the most powerful statements of divinity and claims to be God, by showing not telling. He demonstrated two things: A) he could forgive sin and B) he could raise the lame. The latter act was offered as miraculous proof that he had the right to do the former. And notice when you read that passage that the people understood exactly what he was claiming in what he did: Mark 2:7: "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" BINGO!
Also his power over nature is another divine prerogative. Who but God can command nature? Matt 8:27: The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
Jesus self chosen title, "Son of Man" also reveals a divine self understanding. People often think that this was more a claim to his finite humanity but that's usually because they don't understand the Jewish context in which Jesus lived and how often he referred to Daniel. Many scholars would agree that by using the phrase He considered himself to be the fulfillment of Daniel's vision of a "Son of Man":
Dan 7:13-14 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man , coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” NIV
That's a pretty divine "son of man"... “authority”, “glory”, “sovreign power”! All nations worship him! If the “Son of Man” isn't divine, then the worship of him would be idolatry. Now clearly this One called the "son of man" is described by Daniel as a distinct person from the "Ancient of Days". But that is why Christians have held fast to the Trinity idea which says that Jesus was not God the Father, but God the Son and they, along with the Spirit are three Persons that all share the same DIVINE BEING. One BEING (Christians are monotheists), three PERSONS.
That complex unity within God is why you never see Jesus claiming to be God in such simple language as, "I am God" because, as the 2nd person of a TRIUNE Being, he has no desire to usurp God the Father. That's the Devil's mistake. Jesus is the perfectly obedient Son, who, "though equal with God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing." Every verse of the Bible where it seems that Jesus is deflecting divinity, is merely him taking the humble nature of a servant. He empties himself and submits to the Father who is a different person, yet who eternally exists alongside Son and Spirit. You can't commingle them as Persons, but you also can't separate them as three Beings because there is just one God.
So with that Triune relationship as Jesus' fundamental self understanding, with a humble, communal, obedient, submissive attitude of a Son in his mind, the following statement is as close as Jesus ever gets to saying, "I am God": He says:
John 10:30 "I and the Father are one."
And in case you think that's "one" as Christians are "one with Christ" in the sense of merely sharing his power and blessings... Jesus means more than that. He means sharing the same NATURE as God. We know this is his intent because that's how the people who listened to him understood him and he did not correct them. Check this out:
John 10:33-39 "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
Of course his repeated claim to be the Son of God is a powerful claim to divinity also. This is not some Hindu saying this. A pantheist could claim to be a son of God with a sense of sharing the "god essence" of Nature with all other living things... No, this is a Jewish man, who talked to Jews who believed in a unique Power, a Being that existed outside the universe, who had independent existence, who alone came before all things, who is Originator and Creator of all. Jesus, by using the title: Son of God, was claiming eternal kinship with this Being. Wow! We usually lock up people who say these kinds of things.
But then we haven't gotten to his most stark claim to divinity which is his repeated use of the phrase "I AM". As you may know, the Hebrew words that make up the Divine name as revealed to Moses are simply, "I AM". Well, in John 8 Jesus has a conversation where he claims that Abraham looked forward to his coming. And when they challenged this he said: John 8:58 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am !" NIV
Now he was clearly claiming “pre-existence” in this statement, but also something more. And it’s no surprise they picked up stones to stone him after he said this. Why? Because again, Jews were not at all unclear about what Jesus was claiming! He wasn’t just saying he existed before Abraham, he’s using the Divine name to do so, which could only mean one thing: he was claiming to be the eternal God. Jews didn't even SPEAK the name lest they misuse it, and here was a guy not just speaking it, but applying it to himself! In fact, when Jesus calms the storm, he says, Matt 14:27 "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." – and that middle phrase, translated, "It is I," is really just two words in the Greek. Want to guess which two? Yep, "I AM".
Now, when we look at the Apostles view of Jesus identity, they were very clear, starting with John who said, John 1:1,
in the beginning was the Word [Jesus] and the Word was with God and the Word was God. [emphasis added]
But he and the others got this understanding of Jesus first from Jesus himself; Who understood himself to be the fulfillment of the Jewish Messiah, who believed he preexisted before his own birth on earth, and who thought he was one with the Father, claiming a unity with that Being who made the Universe, a community and affinity with Him, such that they shared the same nature and intent and will, while being distinct persons.
That's what Jesus considered himself.
