Justification and Sanctification

404 How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants?

The whole human race is in Adam "as one body of one man". By this "unity

of the human race" all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are

implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a

mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation

that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone,

but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve

committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they

would then transmit in a fallen state.

It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is,

by the transmission of a human nature deprived of original holiness and

justice. And that is why original sin is called "sin" only in an analogical

sense: it is a sin "contracted" and not "committed" - a state and not

an act.