School and training of the cross

Meaning

Tyrocinia is glossed by exercises or schooling in the cross. The passage presents permitted temptations as training through which believers grow in faith, hope, patience, and calling upon God, learning the enemy's devices for the struggle ahead. The trials are not represented as a meritorious payment that purchases salvation. The devil tempts; God permits the trial for a stated gracious purpose; the believer's capacity to meet it remains dependent on grace. English “preliminary exercises” preserves the training sense without making the image a literal military institution.