My two cents worth (FWIW) regarding this question of will: It seems to me that to will is to act, to do, to assent. It is active. Of what value to God (I wonder) would our relationship with Him have, if it were based on pure passivity? After all, He it was who imbued man with Will and Reason. Why would He give us something, if it necessarily serves as an obstacle to spiritual union with Him? He wants our free assent -- which is willed assent. He wants "sons," for the purpose of relating to us Father to son, not merely to "absorb" our spirit into Himself. (I think the latter may be Satan's method, however. At least if C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters has any truth in it....)
I think there is a certain "tension" between the apostles John and Paul, and I think this is the source of the disagreement you and A-G seem to be having. John -- the "beloved apostle" -- had immediate, loving, in-the-flesh connection with Jesus Christ while He walked on earth. And John faithfully followed -- by choice. Paul did not have this "in-the-flesh" contact with Christ -- but was called to spiritual union with Christ well after his transfiguration, crucifixion, and ascension.
Perhaps this may account for the difference between A-G's "Pauline" interpretation, and your more "Johannine" one, unspun. BOTH are true: It's just a question of emphasis. I've probably put the matter pretty crudely here.
John witnessed the Transfiguration. I can only try to imagine what he saw, and understood of what he saw. Somehow, I feel that it involved an act of Will on Jesus' part.