Is there legal-historical proof Jesus claimed to be God?

Is there legal-historical proof Jesus claimed to be God? Who did Jesus say he was? Jesus isn't even called God in the Bible, so why do we say he is God?

What many people don't realize is that the words Jesus Christ are not a first and last name. They are a name and a title. The name "Jesus" is derived from the greek form of the name Jeshua, or Joshua, meaning "Jehovah-Savior" or "the Lord saves." The title 'Christ' is derived from the Greek word for Messiah and means 'anointed one.' Two offices, king and priest, are indicated in the use of the title 'Christ'. The title affirms Jesus as the promised priest and king of Old Testament prophecies. The New Testament clearly presents Christ as God. 

In the gospel of John we have a confrontation between Jesus and a group of Jewish leaders. It's triggered by Jesus curing a lame man on the Sabbath. Jews were forbidden to do any work on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders harassed Him for breaking the Sabbath rules. 'My Father is always working, and so am I,' Jesus replied, so 'the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.'

The Jews of Jesus time heard in His words a meaning that is easily lost to us now. Whenever we study a document we must take into account the language, the culture and especially the person or persons the document addresses. In this case, the culture is Jewish, and the persons being addressed are Jewish leaders. And something about what Jesus said got under their skin. The text says, 'So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.'

Their problem was Jesus said, my Father, not our Father. By the rules of their language, Jesus use of this phrase was a claim to be equal with God. The Jews rarely referred to God as 'my Father.' Or if they did, they would always qualify the statement by adding the phrase 'in heaven'. However, Jesus did not add the phrase. He made a claim the Jews could not misinterpret when He called God 'my Father'. 

Not only did Jesus claim equality with God as His Father, but He also asserted that He was one with the Father. During the Feast of Dedication of Jerusalem, some of the Jewish leaders approached Jesus and questioned Him about whether He was the Christ. Jesus concluded His comments by saying. "The Father and I are one." How did they respond to that? "Once again the people picked up stones to kill him."

You might wonder why the Jews reacted so strongly to what Jesus said about being one with the Father. The structure of the phrase in the Greek gives us an answer. A.T. Robertson, the foremost Greek scholar of his day wrote that in the Greek, the word one in this passage is neuter, not masculine and does not indicate one in person or purpose but rather one in essence of nature. This crisp statement is the climax of Christ's claims about the relationship between the Father and himself. Jesus saw himself as one in essence of nature with God.

Jesus Christ claimed to be God, and to Him it is of fundamental importance that men and women believe Him to be who He was. He didn't leave us any wiggle room for in-between, watered down alternatives. Jesus claimed to be God, if His claims were not true, you couldn't call Him either a good moral man or a great prophet. Jesus Christ is either who He said He was, God, or he is a liar or he is a lunatic. The choice is yours to make.

*Who is Jesus?...Really. By. Josh Mcdowell