Ice Cream and Free Will

I was recently asked what I thought of autonomy.  I replied...

It does not exist on the macro level.

At the core, autonomy means self-determination.

The idea that we make rational, unbiased, intelligent, free choices is
untrue.  Our destinies are controled by one of two outside forces.

We are always making choices influenced by either our pre-disposed depraved nature or our
regenerated ontological being.

That is, we are either doing what we do under the lordship of
Original Sin
or
under the Lordship of Christ.

Its like ice cream (to paraphrase Greg Koukl)...

When you go to a creamery and choose a flavor, you ARE making a "free
will" decision. However, your will is dictated by your nature. If you
have a positive disposition towards chocolate and a massive aversion
towards vanilla - you will awlays choose chocolate.

What flavor you like wasn't a free will decision, it was an already
established fact of who you are, outside of any choice. Your choices in
the creamery included vanilla or chocolate - but you could really only
choose the one you have a taste for.
 
For your preference to change from chocolate to vanilla, that would require something outside of yourself - something you are not in control of.
 
This is the parallel of our salvation.  We are born drenched in sin according to Psalm 51 and unable to choose fellowship with God.  We do exercise our free will everyday, our free will unto sin. 
 
The good news is that God in his mercy comes and changes our desires, he changes our heart.  After that intervention, we still exercise our free will - free will in accordance with our new preferences for the things of God.
 
I know this isn't perfect as an illustration.  We could dig into it and find problems - but, I hope you get the general point.  Free will is not thrown out by the Reformed view, it is simply seen in its proper context - that is, subservient to our nature.