“All of them would have the same potential for some relationship with God as humans.
It is possible, if such rational animals exist, that some of them have never sinned.”
If they had sinned, though, they could not simply be redeemed by Jesus as part and parcel of his redemption of humans. His death on earth would not qualify as a propitiary sacrifice for their sins, since, under God’s law, a debt can only be repaid by the original debtor or his direct descendants. That is why Christ had to become a man in order to redeem us.
So, to redeem a species of sinful aliens, He would have to become one of those aliens and perform a similar redemptive act.
But FIRST, He'd have to given them aliens some LAW to break...
Who says the whole thing about “debt” and “propitiatory sacrifice” in reference to the death of Christ holds any water? I don’t. I think it’s an unsustainable theological theory.