Ephesians 5:25 says this: 

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.

It can’t be a question of whether or not a husband will jump in front of a speeding car to save his wife.  Of course I’m sure God expects a man to be willing to do that if necessary...but I don’t believe the apostle meant for us to get such a limited idea of husbands giving their lives for their wives.

When I look to Jesus’ example, as the above passage teaches, I cannot fail to notice that he didn’t just give his life for his church in his death.  The agony he bore for us at the place of the skull, was just the culmination of an entire life lived in sacrifice and service to provide for the church. 

1 Corinthians 8:9 says, 

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He is rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

Jesus forsook unimaginable wealth (and not just the material kind, either) to accept poverty, pain, ridicule, arrogance, hunger, thirst, rejection and every other ill-begotten dark side of the human condition.  He didn’t just come to the slums, He got right down in the gutter to pull us out of our mess.  He didn’t just come to die, He came to live among us and show us the way to live in the face of murderous (literally) opposition.  He didn’t live among men in comfort as a wealthy king and then step down from His throne to go to Golgotha.  He faced the hard realities of life for us every day.

That’s the kind of sacrificial spirit Jesus asks of husbands.

A wife doesn’t need a husband to die for her, but to live for her, to care for her spiritual and emotional needs.  Every aspect of her life requires fulfillment for health and happiness.

Jumping in front of a speeding car may be heroic and glorious, but what's really needed at home is a husband who loves his wife as Jesus does his church.