They had though the potency to choose not to eat the fruit.
Adam did have the potency, as a sinless human being Engulfed as the entire Creation was, with the Enablement of the Spirit to remain sinless, in a State of Innocense, however, in order for God to Create a being with which He could Enjoy the Endless Eternity with The Triune Godhead in Heaven, who could also begin to understand and appreciate the Attributes of God's Love and Mercy, while remaining Holy and Just, more than the Chosen Angels, who God Decided to "keep" in their first sinless State, by "Confirming" them, because they are then essentially acting from a robotic-quality, then, the alternatives to confirming the first human beings to remain sinless, was not that God could Create a being who had God's Attribute of Immutibility, because that Attribute would have already had to have Existed as long as God Himself has been Immutible, and God couldn't Create another "God" in that way, because that being would have a starting point.
So, without simply Creating more robotic-type, automatically confirmed beings to Fellowship with Him and since another Eternally Immutable "God" was impossible to Create, that left God with the Decision of Creating a Mutable being, who, although they did have the potency to remain Obedient to God in all things He Required, they also had the possibility of Offending God, by turning from their Obedience to Him, and breaking God's Law, which would be an Eternally Punishable Crime, for which God would be Just and in Honor to Require they suffer the Penalty of an Eternity in Hell, banished from God, in Torment, and for that Mutable being to then, also of course, not be available for Communing with God in Heaven, Forever, which, you already know, but we certainly can't begin to fathom the Gravity of the Eternal Reality wherein God so Loved the World that He Gave His Only Begotten Son, to Accomplish a Provision to Satisfy God's Justice, by Living a Perfect, Sinless Life, AND OBTAINING RIGHTEOUSNESS BY LIVING PERFECTLY WHILE UNDER GOD'S LAW, WHICH GOD WOULDN'T HAVE HAD, FOR JESUS TO BE ABLE TO GRANT HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS TO SINNERS WHO JESUS WAS ABLE TO PARDON, BY PAYING AND REDEEMING THEM AND BUYING THEM OUT OF THEIR SINS IN A WAY THAT GOD COULD ACCEPT, WHEN JESUS DIED AND OUR SINS WERE PLACED UPON HIM, LIKE A LAMB SLAIN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, WHO WAS MADE TO BE SIN, BY MY SINS BEING IMPUTED TO HIM, AND HE DIED THE JUST FOR THE UNJUST, AS HE WAS MADE SIN, HE WHO KNEW NO SIN THAT WE MAY BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD, IN HIM, WHERE THAT IS OUR BEING GIVEN JESUS' RIGHTEOUSNESS TO NOW BE OUR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT HAS BEEN IMPUTED TO US, IN THE PARDON OF OUR SINS, GOD THEN SEES WE ARE IN POSSESION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AT WHICH TIME GOD SAYS, "THAT SOUL HAS A CLEAN RECORD THAT IS PERFECT", SO HE JUSTIFIES US FREELY AS PART OF OUR EXPERIENCE IN THE NEW BIRTH WHEN JESUS GIVES US ETERNAL LIFE, WHICH IS ULTIMATELY AND ABSOLUTELY ASSURED, BECAUSE GOD RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD, TO HAVE ETERNALLY QUICKENING POWER OF LIFE OVER DEATH, WHO HAS SAVED TO THE UTTERMOST THEM THAT COME UNTO GOD, BY HIM, WHO HAVE ZERO FREE WILL TO CHOOSE LOSE THEIR SALVATION, BECAUSE NO MAN CAN PLUCK THEM OUT HIS HAND.
And, why, why, why, was all this necessary and for God to Determine to Save some of these Mutable being He had Created, after they Adam had deliberatey chosen to act in opposition to God and we did, in Adam did too, as our Federal Head of the Human Race, because if we had been sinless in the Garden, as a Mutable being, the inevitablity of our having chosen to sin would eventually have taken place, without any Intervention or Action by God?
Jesus Gave the reason for God to have Created man and allowed him to sin against Him, knowing what Breathtaking Cost that would be Required to then Reconcile them back to God, in Forgiveness of their sins.
What reason did Jesus tell us for God to have The Triune Godhead to Perfectly Accomplish Their Eternal Plan of Salvation for those Elect souls that God Gave the Son to die for?
In John 10, Jesus was telling us who He died for when He told us, I Lay Down My Life for the sheep; WHY?
Jesus was Praying to His Father when He said, "I would that they be with Me where I Am", there in John 17.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit Created Human Beings who were all sinners now by Nature
and Jesus Prepared a Place for the Eternally Saved children of God. If it were not so Jesus would have told us...
[
1] Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
[
2] In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
[
3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also.
[
4] And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
[
5] Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
[
6] Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
One of these days, dear friends.
Let not your heart be troubled.
That's the only way God could Create beings to truly Fellowship and Commune with Him, together, AS ONE LIKE THEY ARE AND WORSHIP GOD WITHOUT SIN, FOREVER!
Romans 3:
21 "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 "Even the righteousness of God
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 "Whom God hath set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 "To declare, I say, at this time His Righteousness:
that He might be Just, and the Justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus."
