No one was saved by the law..
If the law could save we would still be under law, christ died for nothing
Again, you are "anticipating revelation" here. You are assuming that everyone before Paul understood Romans, Galatians and Ephesians.
During the dispensation of the law, you exhibit faith by "obeying the law", all the Jews have to obey the law. It is true that all the saints of past ages were saved through the merits of Christ's shed blood, but not through their faith in that shed blood.
Those of past ages were expected to believe only what God had thus far revealed, or what He had revealed to them. In other words, they were saved simply because they trusted God and believed what He said. The full plan of salvation has since been unfolded, but the Scriptures make it crystal clear that these believers were saved without even understanding that Christ would die for them.
When God says, "Repent and be baptized for the remission. of sins," what
will faith do? Just one thing: repent and be baptized. We know that oceans of
water cannot wash away one sin, yet when John the Baptist and Peter preached
repentance and baptism for remission not one of their hearers would have
interpreted their words to mean: "Trust in the death of Christ for salvation."
Indeed, when God required water baptism for salvation the only way to manifest
faith was to be baptized, and those who refused to do so were condemned for
their unbelief:
"But the Pharisees and lawyers REJECTED THE COUNSEL OF GOD
AGAINST THEMSELVES, BEING NOT BAPTIZIED OF HIM" (Luke 7:30).
But when God says, "BUT NOW the righteousness of God without the law is
manifested" (Rom. 3:21); "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5); "Being
Justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus"
(Rom. 3:24); "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1:7); "Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us"
(Tit. 3:5); "Not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man
should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9) -
When God now says this, what will faith do? Faith will say, "This is the most wonderful offer ever made by God to man. I cannot refuse it. I will trust Christ as my Savior and accept salvation as the free gift of God's grace."